Abstract
In this paper I will discuss the concept “limit-situation” as it is developed in Karl Jaspers' early writings, especially his Psychologie der Weltanschauungen and Philosophie, and explore how this concept could be understood in a broader way. After a discussion of the concepts of “limit” and “situation” I will discuss Jaspers' heritage from Kant and Kierkegaard, in whose works the concepts of antinomy and paradox are central. Antinomy is worked out in Jaspers' thinking as single limit-situations in which the human being understands her finitude and openness. It is through these single limit-situations that her world-view is shaped. Through a discussion of Jaspers' communication theory and his understanding of the mystics, I will extend the concept of limit-situation from the single limit-situations. I will argue that the limit-situation should be understood, not only as a concept marking the limits of the human situation, but as a way of exploring the human situation as limit.
© Philosophia Press 2006