Jaspers, Karl. Filosofia de la existencia

Abstract

The review examines Filosofia de la existencia, by Karl Jaspers, a volume gathering three lectures delivered at the German Academy in Frankfurt in 1937, read here in the Spanish translation by Luis Rodríguez Aranda published by Aguilar in 1961. The commentary follows the sequence of the lectures — being, truth and reality —, places the book among the author's other writings, in particular De la verdad, and records that it was his last work before Jaspers was removed from the Heidelberg chair by the Nazi regime. From the first chapter it sets out the notion of the encompassing, according to which no known being is being itself, and its modes of manifestation: world, existence and consciousness in general. From the second, the modes of truth — consciousness in general, existence and spirit — and the thesis that formulations of truth are historical constructions that present themselves as authorities and therefore live in tension. From the third, the discussion of reality, transcendence and the limits of science, which turns into superstition when it disregards its own limit. The review holds that the work presents philosophy as the unfinished task of pursuing truth through reason.