The Subject-Object-Relationship in Karl Jaspers’ Periechontology – A Contribution to an Education for Openness, Tolerance and Existential Realization

Resumo

The relationship of subject and object is commonly treated in educational theories as question how to connect the student with the contend to be appropriated. In Karl Jaspers’ later philosophy, the Periechontology, we find reflections that lead to the limits of the subject-object-division, demonstrating that an absolute and final knowing of Being is impossible. He calls those reflections the fundamental philosophical knowledge that can be considered as an antidote against any totalitarism and dogmatic thinking. We have to transcend the subject-object-relationship and to consider the Being the Embracing of object and subject. Jaspers distinguish seven modes of the Embracing. To-be-there (Dasein), Consciousness in General (Bewusstsein überhaupt) Spirit (Geist) are the subjective and immanent modes, World (Welt) the corresponding objective mode in immanence. Living exclusively in these immanent modes never can satisfy quietly. To find real satisfaction in life we have to transcend immanence. In Jaspers’ view, the step to the transcendent modes can only occur in concomitance of subjective and objective side, to Existence (Existenz) and Transcendence (Transzendenz). It is Jaspers’ philosophical (not religious) faith that humans find identity with themselves in the moment when a cipher of Transcendence is recognized as absolute value by them. The seventh mode is Open Reason (Vernunft). This mode allows that all modes are contemplated in its own sense and unified in our decisions that guide our lives. It is the purpose of the present article to elucidate the pedagogical thinking, underpinned by Jaspers’ Periechontology, characterized by openness, tolerance and existential realization.