Existentiality of Freedom in Jaspers Cover Image

Egzistencijalnost slobode kod Jaspersa
Existentiality of Freedom in Jaspers

Author(s): Damir Sekulić
Subject(s): Social Philosophy, Contemporary Philosophy, Existentialism
Published by: Hrvatsko Filozofsko Društvo
Keywords: Karl Jaspers; man; freedom; living-freedom; Existenz; transcendence;

Summary/Abstract: The paper starts with Jaspers’ comprehensive principle of faith which states that man is finite and imperfectible. Man’s finality is peculiar because it is marked by unclosedness. Man is conscious of his (open) finality, so Jaspers concludes that inconclusiveness is a signum of man’s freedom. In this sense, the paper is dedicated to man as determined by freedom, Existenz determined by freedom which eludes (objective) investigation. In Jaspers, it is a matter of freedom which is at the same time a matter of the relation of Existenz and transcendence: finality as Existenz for him means that man is gifted to himself thanks to transcendence, and he becomes conscious of transcendence thanks to freedom. The freedom of Existenz is in a dialectic of independence (on the necessities of the world) and dependence (on transcendence). Freedom leads Existenz beyond the world by way of ciphers to transcendence. For Jaspers, humanness is a matter of freedom in which lies the source of man’s action and self-consciousness. Humanness is not exhausted in knowledge but philosophical faith comes to the fore, the faith of man in his openness of possibilities by way of philosophy. The paper concludes with the view that a demand for meaning is made out to man as Existenz out of freedom as postulated by Jaspers.

  • Issue Year: 41/2021
  • Issue No: 01/161
  • Page Range: 89-102
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Croatian