Jaspers, Karl Theodor 1883-1969
German existentialist philosopher

Born in Oldenburg, he studied medicine at Berlin, G�ttingen and Heidelberg, where he joined the psychiatric clinic (1909-15), published a textbook on psychopathology, Allgemeine Psychopathologie (1913, General Psychopathology, 1965), and was Professor of Psychology (1916-20). From 1921 he was Professor of Philosophy at Heidelberg until dismissed by the Nazis in 1937. His work was banned but he stayed in Germany and was awarded the Goethe prize in 1947 for his uncompromising stand. In 1948 he settled in Basle as a Swiss citizen, and was appointed professor. The most important of his many works is considered to be Philosophie (3 vols, 1932). In this he developed his own brand of existentialism whereby Existenz (Being) necessarily transcends and eludes ordinary objective thought: at the limits of the intellect the 'authentic self' must make a leap of apprehension of a different kind.

Bibliography: Leonard H Ehrlich, Karl Jaspers: Philosophy as Faith (1975)