ABSTRACT
The German psychologist and philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) was surely one of the most important figures in the twentieth-century reception of Kierkegaard’s oeuvre. Whether the reception of his thought “in a stricter philosophical sense” really began with Jaspers himself, as it was claimed by Anz,1 is open to discussion. Jaspers’ prominent contribution to the philosophical interpretation and dissemination of Kierkegaard’s thinking at a very early stage of reception, however, is indisputable.2 The influence of the Danish thinker on Jaspers can hardly be overestimated;3 his entire work can also be read, as Theunissen remarks, “as a unique Kierkegaard commentary.”4 Although, as we shall see, he did not assimilate Kierkegaard’s thought without reserve or ambivalence, Jaspers can rightly be characterized as a “genuinely productive recipient”5 in this regard. In what follows, first Jaspers’ philosophical development will be outlined, thereafter the results of the preceding research will be surveyed, and finally an attempt will be made to reconstruct Jaspers’ readings,
1 See Wilhelm Anz, “Zur Wirkungsgeschichte Kierkegaards in der deutschen Theologie und Philosophie,” Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche, vol. 79, no. 4, 1982, p. 466. 2 The canonization of Kierkegaard’s thought in the academic philosophical scene is closely connected with Jaspers’ resolute work. As he remarks, the Danish thinker was at the time of his early lectures in effect unknown as a philosopher. See Karl Jaspers, “Nachwort (1955) zu meiner Philosophie,” in his Philosophie, vols. 1-3, 4th ed., Berlin, Heidelberg and New York: Springer 1973 [1932], vol. 1, p. XX. 3 Jaspers himself claims in his late autobiographical retrospect: “Kierkegaard verdanke ich den Begriff der ‘Existenz,’ der mir seit 1916 maßgebend wurde, um das zu fassen, worum ich mich bis dahin in Unruhe bemüht hatte.” See Karl Jaspers, Philosophische Autobiographie, in Karl Jaspers, ed. by Paul Arthur Schilpp, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 1957, p. 71. 4 See Materialien zur Philosophie Søren Kierkegaards, ed. by Michael Theunissen and Wilfried Greve, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1979, p. 62. 5 Heiko Schulz, “Germany and Austria: A Modest Head Start: The German Reception of Kierkegaard,” in Kierkegaard’s International Reception, Tome I, Northern and Western
reception and interpretation of Kierkegaard in the light of his published works as well as his Nachlass.6
