Volume 19, No. 2, Fall 2024

FORTHCOMING

Karl Jaspers and Plotinus

Ascent to the One and Becoming Existence: Different Paths to Selfhood According to Plotinus and Karl Jaspers
Václav Němec | Charles University, Prague, CZ

The main common concern of Plotinus' and Karl Jaspers' philosophy lies in the effort to overcome the alienation of the human being lost to the realm of immanence by becoming one's true or authentic self. However, these two thinkers have differing ideas about the human path to selfhood: While Plotinus sees the way in the ascent of the soul to the Intellect and to the One, Jaspers considers it as a drama of existence striving for its self-realization through decisions in concrete situations, especially in boundary situations, and through, what he calls, "existential communication." These diverging ideas form the background of Jaspers’ critique of Plotinus in Jaspers' book, The Great Philosophers.

Keywords: Plotinus; Jaspers, Karl; soul; mystical ascent; selfhood; boundary situations; existential communication.

Transcendence in Jaspers, Kant, and Plotinus
M. Ashraf Adeel | Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

Karl Jaspers addresses the topics Existenz and transcendence in the three volumes of his 1932 work Philosophy. Each volume describes one specific aspect of being in the world, namely, orientation, existence, and metaphysical transcendence. Humans discover orientation in the world through scientific fact-finding. In this context, one comes to grips with one's existence in the world through subjective reflection upon the boundary situations of one's life and through interpersonal existential communication. We confront the transcendence of Existenz through our reason when discovering the limits of its autonomous functioning. In this essay, I discuss the nature of Existenz and transcendence in Jaspers' philosophy and compare it on the one hand with the Kantian view of the ideas of autonomous reason, and on the other hand with Plotinus' view of the Transcendent One.

Keywords: tba.

Thinking That Shatters Against the Unthinkable: Plotinus' Speculative Ascent According to Jaspers
Jörn W. Kroll | Petaluma, California

This essay examines Jaspers' monograph on Plotinus with a specific focus on Plotinus' method of ascending to the summit of his philosophizing: union with Intellect and the One, the second and first principles of his metaphysics. Jaspers' monograph reflects the highest admiration for the ancient sage and exceptional enthusiasm for his inquiring philosophizing, but it contains also a central misleading interpretation bordering on distortion. Without providing textual evidence, Jaspers attributes a phrase to Plotinus, "thinking the unthinkable," whose paradoxical and self-destructive logic Jaspers interprets as Plotinus' pivot point for his ascent to Intellect and the One. Jaspers' sympathetic but slanted interpretation appears, to a large extent, to result from his tenacious propensity to identify different modes of cognition with a singular term: thinking. Distinguishing between different modes of cognition can resolve Jaspers' self-made perplexity.

Keywords: tba.

Understanding Plotinus' Mysticism through Jaspers' Concept of Existenz and Śaṅkara's Concept of Pure Consciousness: A Meta-Ontological Approach
Krishna Mani Pathak | Hindu College, University of Delhi, India

Plotinus, who adopted the main teaching of Plato's philosophy of ideas and his dialectical method of knowing reality, is widely considered a mystic. His mysticism is related to the Supreme One, that is, God and his divine attributes, through which there is communio (participatory communication) and unio (union) between the self of humans and the supreme self, and this is taken as a means of human salvation. In contrast, Karl Jaspers believes that humans are governed by reason which is simultaneously the means of inventing ourselves. Focusing on Jaspers' critique of Plotinus' mysticism, I will raise three questions aimed at understanding the conceptual structure of the human soul, namely, first, are there similarities in the writings of Jaspers and Plotinus with regard to going beyond the physical realm; second, since Jaspers appears to believe in the transcendental human agency in the same way as Plotinus, what are his reasons for criticizing Plotinus' mysticism; and third, are there similarities in Jaspers' and Plotinus' understanding of pure existence or being as compared to the monistic philosophy of Advaita Vedānta in the Indian tradition? To answer these questions, I intend to explore Plotinus’ mystical philosophy through the conceptual lens of Jaspers' Existenz and from Ādi Śaṅkara’s Advaitic lens of monistic Brahman, that is, Pure Consciousness.

Keywords: tba.

Cosmic Consciousness and Trans-cultural Values: Jaspers' New Way of Thinking
Indu Sarin | Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

The author reflects on the global challenges producing military, economic, cultural, and religious theaters of war. She highlights Jaspers' solution to the above crises through awakening true humanity within mankind. Jaspers' new way of thinking with a cosmic consciousness based on ethics of responsibility, reason, philosophical faith, and intrinsic trans-cultural values is in contradistinction to the prevalent global consciousness founded on instrumental values. The author emphasizes the significance of trans-cultural values for uniting diverse cultures, leading to constructive interactions in all spheres of life. His value-based education can bring integral development of the individual by teaching one to use resources in the right and balanced way to bring about a better world of peace, prosperity, and harmony, rising above a closed shell toward a luminous encompassing vision. The author suggests that the religion of humanity should become the guiding light of all religions across borders.

Keywords: Jaspers, Karl; reason; philosophical faith; communication; transcendent thinking; scientific thinking; knowing-that; knowing-how; technology; education.

Karl Jaspers and Lev Shestov on Philosophical Faith and Faith in Revelation
Marina G. Ogden | University of Glasgow, UK

In his discussion on philosophical faith and faith in revelation, Karl Jaspers defined revelation as "a direct communication or act of God in space and time, definitely placed in history." For him, the truth of revelation is established only through the revelation itself. Acknowledging a correlation between philosophical faith and faith in revelation, Jaspers maintained that philosophy's supreme knowledge is that it does not know. Jaspers aspired to unity between the two visions, as for him, philosophical faith and faith in revelation are undivided in a thinker's mind. Comparably, for Lev Shestov, the truth of revelation manifests itself when one's worldview is transformed by the redeeming truth that has been revealed. Arguing for the incommensurability of faith and reason, Shestov drew a decisive line between the two types of faith. Similarly to Jaspers, however, the philosopher's thought alluded to the possibility to "go even further," employing apophatic patterns to disclose the ineffable.

Keywords: Kierkegaard, Søren; Nietzsche, Friedrich; Existenz; faith; reason; revelation; philosophy of existence; knowledge; religion; existential thinkers.