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Περί του Τραγικού
Στα 1947 δημοσιεύεται στο Μόναχο το έργο του Jaspers για την αλήθεια ("Von der Wahrheit", εκδ. Piper). Το ογκωδέστατο βιβλίο θα αποτελούσε τον πρώτο τόμο μιας τετραλογίας, όπως την σχεδίαζε ο Jaspers, με τον τίτλο "Φιλοσοφική Λογική". Άλλοι τόμοι δεν έχουν ίσαμε τώρα δημοσιευθεί. Το 1952, πάντως, ένα μικρό τμήμα από το προαναφερθέν έργο (οι σελίδες 915-960) τυπώνονται σε ξεχωριστό τόμο με τον τίτλο "Περί του τραγικού" (Uber das Tragische, Puper). Από τότε αυτός ο τόμος γνωρίζει συνεχείς ανατυπώσεις ενώ τον Μάρτιο του 90 ο ίδιος εκδοτικός οίκος θα συμπεριλάβει στον τόμο και ένα άλλο απόσπασμα από το βιβλίο του Jaspers για την αλήθεια, το σχετικό με την γλώσσα. Η παρούσα μετάφραση ακολουθεί αυτήν την τελευταία ανατύπωση. [...]
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
78 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1952
1 person is currently reading
135 people want to read
About the author
Karl Jaspers
427 books364 followersJaspers was born in Oldenburg in 1883 to a mother from a local farming community, and a jurist father. He showed an early interest in philosophy, but his father's experience with the legal system undoubtedly influenced his decision to study law at university. It soon became clear that Jaspers did not particularly enjoy law, and he switched to studying medicine in 1902.
Jaspers graduated from medical school in 1909 and began work at a psychiatric hospital in Heidelberg where Emil Kraepelin had worked some years earlier. Jaspers became dissatisfied with the way the medical community of the time approached the study of mental illness and set himself the task of improving the psychiatric approach. In 1913 Jaspers gained a temporary post as a psychology teacher at Heidelberg University. The post later became permanent, and Jaspers never returned to clinical practice.
At the age of 40 Jaspers turned from psychology to philosophy, expanding on themes he had developed in his psychiatric works. He became a renowned philosopher, well respected in Germany and Europe. In 1948 Jaspers moved to the University of Basel in Switzerland. He remained prominent in the philosophical community until his death in Basel in 1969.
Jaspers' dissatisfaction with the popular understanding of mental illness led him to question both the diagnostic criteria and the methods of clinical psychiatry. He published a revolutionary paper in 1910 in which he addressed the problem of whether paranoia was an aspect of personality or the result of biological changes. Whilst not broaching new ideas, this article introduced a new method of study. Jaspers studied several patients in detail, giving biographical information on the people concerned as well as providing notes on how the patients themselves felt about their symptoms. This has become known as the biographical method and now forms the mainstay of modern psychiatric practice.
Jaspers set about writing his views on mental illness in a book which he published in 1913 as General Psychopathology. The two volumes which make up this work have become a classic in the psychiatric literature and many modern diagnostic criteria stem from ideas contained within them. Of particular importance, Jaspers believed that psychiatrists should diagnose symptoms (particularly of psychosis) by their form rather than by their content. For example, in diagnosing a hallucination, the fact that a person experiences visual phenomena when no sensory stimuli account for it (form) assumes more importance than what the patient sees (content).
Jaspers felt that psychiatrists could also diagnose delusions in the same way. He argued that clinicians should not consider a belief delusional based on the content of the belief, but only based on the way in which a patient holds such a belief (see delusion for further discussion). Jaspers also distinguished between primary and secondary delusions. He defined primary delusions as autochthonous meaning arising without apparent cause, appearing incomprehensible in terms of normal mental processes. (This is a distinctly different use of the term autochthonous than its usual medical or sociological meaning of indigenous.) Secondary delusions, on the other hand, he classified as influenced by the person's background, current situation or mental state.
Jaspers considered primary delusions as ultimately 'un-understandable,' as he believed no coherent reasoning process existed behind their formation. This view has caused some controversy, and the likes of R. D. Laing and Richard Bentall have criticised it, stressing that taking this stance can lead therapists into the complacency of assuming that because they do not understand a patient, the patient is deluded and further investigation on the part of the therapist will have no effect.
Most commentators associate Jaspers with the philosophy of existentialism, in part because he draws largely upon the existentialist roots of Nietzsche and Kierk
Jaspers graduated from medical school in 1909 and began work at a psychiatric hospital in Heidelberg where Emil Kraepelin had worked some years earlier. Jaspers became dissatisfied with the way the medical community of the time approached the study of mental illness and set himself the task of improving the psychiatric approach. In 1913 Jaspers gained a temporary post as a psychology teacher at Heidelberg University. The post later became permanent, and Jaspers never returned to clinical practice.
At the age of 40 Jaspers turned from psychology to philosophy, expanding on themes he had developed in his psychiatric works. He became a renowned philosopher, well respected in Germany and Europe. In 1948 Jaspers moved to the University of Basel in Switzerland. He remained prominent in the philosophical community until his death in Basel in 1969.
Jaspers' dissatisfaction with the popular understanding of mental illness led him to question both the diagnostic criteria and the methods of clinical psychiatry. He published a revolutionary paper in 1910 in which he addressed the problem of whether paranoia was an aspect of personality or the result of biological changes. Whilst not broaching new ideas, this article introduced a new method of study. Jaspers studied several patients in detail, giving biographical information on the people concerned as well as providing notes on how the patients themselves felt about their symptoms. This has become known as the biographical method and now forms the mainstay of modern psychiatric practice.
Jaspers set about writing his views on mental illness in a book which he published in 1913 as General Psychopathology. The two volumes which make up this work have become a classic in the psychiatric literature and many modern diagnostic criteria stem from ideas contained within them. Of particular importance, Jaspers believed that psychiatrists should diagnose symptoms (particularly of psychosis) by their form rather than by their content. For example, in diagnosing a hallucination, the fact that a person experiences visual phenomena when no sensory stimuli account for it (form) assumes more importance than what the patient sees (content).
Jaspers felt that psychiatrists could also diagnose delusions in the same way. He argued that clinicians should not consider a belief delusional based on the content of the belief, but only based on the way in which a patient holds such a belief (see delusion for further discussion). Jaspers also distinguished between primary and secondary delusions. He defined primary delusions as autochthonous meaning arising without apparent cause, appearing incomprehensible in terms of normal mental processes. (This is a distinctly different use of the term autochthonous than its usual medical or sociological meaning of indigenous.) Secondary delusions, on the other hand, he classified as influenced by the person's background, current situation or mental state.
Jaspers considered primary delusions as ultimately 'un-understandable,' as he believed no coherent reasoning process existed behind their formation. This view has caused some controversy, and the likes of R. D. Laing and Richard Bentall have criticised it, stressing that taking this stance can lead therapists into the complacency of assuming that because they do not understand a patient, the patient is deluded and further investigation on the part of the therapist will have no effect.
Most commentators associate Jaspers with the philosophy of existentialism, in part because he draws largely upon the existentialist roots of Nietzsche and Kierk
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 11, 2025
A little bit Nietzschean, a lot on Kant, with the psychoanalyst's clear focus on conscious and unconscious, the mind and subjective experience as a depth to be plumbed.
A lot of subparagraphing. Polyglot hot takes.
I do not hold much of transcendentalism, which Jaspers firmly proceeds from, so I don't hold much of a notion of Truth, so I didn't find this particularly useful or inspired.
Rated 3/5 for "the world is lightless and in the dark I can't tell if I have my head up my ass, or Karl Jaspers up his."
A point that jumped out of me: historicity for Jaspers is linear. It is the incomplete, the undisclosed, the irreversible. This he contrasts with the cyclical conception of time, such as one finds in Buddhist China. This I find a)not altogether untrue, b)fascinating, c)orientalist, hence cc) myopic conceptualization: for indeed the background of any human society/civilization/culture is a cyclic time: as a necessity any history, in any time to take place, self-propagation (in varying degrees of conservation) of society/civilization/culture/community/being must take place, and it entails crop cycles, ecosystems migrating with the sidereal year, generational turnover. The lived experience of most of humanity, not merely along the banks of the Yangtze, has been one of permanent re-enactment of what was and would be. A wholly linear history is the abstracted domain of a society whose - or, else, is narcissistic enough to imagine the end of its time as the end of all time.
notes on edition:
This is a review of Jaspers's essays/chapters on language and tragedy, respectively - both excerpts from 1948's Von der Wahrheit (Of Truth). The alternate editions here on GR seem (by title and page count) to only contain the latter.
A lot of subparagraphing. Polyglot hot takes.
I do not hold much of transcendentalism, which Jaspers firmly proceeds from, so I don't hold much of a notion of Truth, so I didn't find this particularly useful or inspired.
Rated 3/5 for "the world is lightless and in the dark I can't tell if I have my head up my ass, or Karl Jaspers up his."
A point that jumped out of me: historicity for Jaspers is linear. It is the incomplete, the undisclosed, the irreversible. This he contrasts with the cyclical conception of time, such as one finds in Buddhist China. This I find a)not altogether untrue, b)fascinating, c)orientalist, hence cc) myopic conceptualization: for indeed the background of any human society/civilization/culture is a cyclic time: as a necessity any history, in any time to take place, self-propagation (in varying degrees of conservation) of society/civilization/culture/community/being must take place, and it entails crop cycles, ecosystems migrating with the sidereal year, generational turnover. The lived experience of most of humanity, not merely along the banks of the Yangtze, has been one of permanent re-enactment of what was and would be. A wholly linear history is the abstracted domain of a society whose - or, else, is narcissistic enough to imagine the end of its time as the end of all time.
notes on edition:
This is a review of Jaspers's essays/chapters on language and tragedy, respectively - both excerpts from 1948's Von der Wahrheit (Of Truth). The alternate editions here on GR seem (by title and page count) to only contain the latter.
October 8, 2021
با این کتاب اندیشیدن،شهود های فکری عظیمی نصیبم کرد، گاهی از درون لرزیدم و بسیاری از توصیه های پدرانه ی یاسپرس در برخورد با فلسفه را آویزه ی گوش کردم .
اما آنچه در این کتاب میخوانیم بدون پیوند با شخصیت عظیم کارل یاسپرس بسیار دور و بسیار غریب مینماید.
شاید انتظار می رود خلاصه ای از کتاب ارائه دهم اما حقیقتاً چونان که همیشه از یاسپرس انتظار می رود ، قدم زدن با یاسپرس در مسیری که پیش روی مخاطب میگذارد هرگز قابل خلاصه کردن نیست. یاسپرس ما را وا میدارد که بیاندیشیم، یاد بگیریم و جهان را با چشمانی متفاوت بنگریم.
فلسفه ی اصیل ، موانع و ویژگی هایش را باید با استاد فلسفه ای شناخت که فلسفه را نه تنها مطالعه کرده بلکه زیسته است.
همه ی ما نیاز داریم که فلسفی زیستن را بیاموزیم، و این هیچ ارتباطی به شغل یا تحصیلاتمان ندارد.
اما چند نکته:
کتاب کم حجم است اما هر پاراگراف به چندین بار خواندن و سپس اندیشیدن دارد پس مطالعه به کندی پیش میرود.
اگر با یاسپرس آشنا نیستید توصیه میکنم از این کتاب شروع نکنید، شخصا بسیاری از کتاب های یاسپرس را نخوانده ام و اگر عمری باقی بود روزی به شما خواهم گفت بهتر است از کدام کتابش شروع کنید ، اما تا اینجا که رسیده ام به گمانم بهترین راه برای ورود به جهان یاسپرس از ۱۰۰ صفحه ی اول کتاب فیلسوفان بزرگ است که قبلا معرفی کرده ام.
و اینکه مدتی بود قلم و قلبم فلج شده بود ، و دیروز به زندگی بازگشتم، شاید بخواهید بدانید چگونه؟ « قرآن مرا به زیستن بازگرداند»
تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي نَزَّلَ الْفُرْقَانَ عَلَى عَبْدِهِ لِيَكُونَ لِلْعَالَمِينَ نَذِيرًا
اما آنچه در این کتاب میخوانیم بدون پیوند با شخصیت عظیم کارل یاسپرس بسیار دور و بسیار غریب مینماید.
شاید انتظار می رود خلاصه ای از کتاب ارائه دهم اما حقیقتاً چونان که همیشه از یاسپرس انتظار می رود ، قدم زدن با یاسپرس در مسیری که پیش روی مخاطب میگذارد هرگز قابل خلاصه کردن نیست. یاسپرس ما را وا میدارد که بیاندیشیم، یاد بگیریم و جهان را با چشمانی متفاوت بنگریم.
فلسفه ی اصیل ، موانع و ویژگی هایش را باید با استاد فلسفه ای شناخت که فلسفه را نه تنها مطالعه کرده بلکه زیسته است.
همه ی ما نیاز داریم که فلسفی زیستن را بیاموزیم، و این هیچ ارتباطی به شغل یا تحصیلاتمان ندارد.
اما چند نکته:
کتاب کم حجم است اما هر پاراگراف به چندین بار خواندن و سپس اندیشیدن دارد پس مطالعه به کندی پیش میرود.
اگر با یاسپرس آشنا نیستید توصیه میکنم از این کتاب شروع نکنید، شخصا بسیاری از کتاب های یاسپرس را نخوانده ام و اگر عمری باقی بود روزی به شما خواهم گفت بهتر است از کدام کتابش شروع کنید ، اما تا اینجا که رسیده ام به گمانم بهترین راه برای ورود به جهان یاسپرس از ۱۰۰ صفحه ی اول کتاب فیلسوفان بزرگ است که قبلا معرفی کرده ام.
و اینکه مدتی بود قلم و قلبم فلج شده بود ، و دیروز به زندگی بازگشتم، شاید بخواهید بدانید چگونه؟ « قرآن مرا به زیستن بازگرداند»
تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي نَزَّلَ الْفُرْقَانَ عَلَى عَبْدِهِ لِيَكُونَ لِلْعَالَمِينَ نَذِيرًا
August 31, 2020
"Αρμόζει στη φύση του ανθρώπου να ρίχνει το βλέμμα στον μυχό της αλήθειας. Η αλήθεια είναι πάντοτε γι' αυτόν και μέσα του παρούσα μέσω μιας γλώσσας, ακόμα κι αν αυτή είναι ακατέργαστη και σκοτεινή.
...Το είναι εμφανίζεται στον ναυαγισμό."
...Το είναι εμφανίζεται στον ναυαγισμό."
August 10, 2019
Still, German minds find it almost impossible to challenge the notion of "truth" onto its very existence, and in the end Jaspers in fact focused on a new way of truth perception - questioning it, rather than accepting it. But it is still truth, because the "Encompassing" never fail to linger at the background, the treasure within that vast possibility of chaos is always enticing, worth of a shipwreck of everything.
It's either truth is presented (somewhere) or nihilism everywhere, no alternative.
Thus it's quite typical a traditional German mentality franchised post-war culture critic response rather than some groundbreaking reflection by any means - nor do I believe Jasper was seeking such, which maybe the reason making this little writing somewhat cheap - who says excessively being passionately lyric to love and life is not another kind of lamenting for death and stagnation?
But still, Jaspers is quite aware of that life and love cannot happen when purity of truth is pursued into extremity, and when ambiguities are persecuted at all cost. The Child of Nietzsche style, who treats tragedy with seriousness rather than frivolous aesthetic and lamenting(yes) and brutality of indifference, standing fast in the uncertainty is the goal, and all due respect it's pretty obvious here the uncertainty echos the post-war situation but...well, in reality it doesn't work that way, does it?
It's either truth is presented (somewhere) or nihilism everywhere, no alternative.
Thus it's quite typical a traditional German mentality franchised post-war culture critic response rather than some groundbreaking reflection by any means - nor do I believe Jasper was seeking such, which maybe the reason making this little writing somewhat cheap - who says excessively being passionately lyric to love and life is not another kind of lamenting for death and stagnation?
But still, Jaspers is quite aware of that life and love cannot happen when purity of truth is pursued into extremity, and when ambiguities are persecuted at all cost. The Child of Nietzsche style, who treats tragedy with seriousness rather than frivolous aesthetic and lamenting(yes) and brutality of indifference, standing fast in the uncertainty is the goal, and all due respect it's pretty obvious here the uncertainty echos the post-war situation but...well, in reality it doesn't work that way, does it?
December 16, 2022
Opera brevissima, ma che condensa in sé alcune delle visioni più interessanti sulla funzione del tragico. Uno scritto che sa' stupire a ogni pagina, con asserzioni di estrema chiarezza che manifestano una comprensione della verità tragica ineludibile.
December 8, 2025
Dù quyển này đọc dễ hiểu hơn Cái Ác nhưng hỏi mình thật sự hiểu không thì mình thấy bản thân vẫn còn lờ mờ lắm.
June 3, 2023
I read Vietnamese version by the philosopher and translator Bui Van Nam Son
Read
April 12, 2022متن خیلی سختی داره
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