„Zeitkritik und Freiheitspathos“

Abstract

Karl Jaspers’ political thinking can be understood as time-critical thinking, which systematic centre is the concept of freedom. While Jaspers already discussed various facets of human freedom in his early writings, he continued to develop this basic concept. The „Grenzsituation“ of the totalitarian system initiates a change to an explicitly political thinker. With the writings published after the Second World War, Jaspers accomplishes a justification of the democratic constitutional state. Freedom takes on full form in the constitutio libertatis, which opens up a space of proving for human existence. In this reading, democracy is a way of life in which citizens educate themselves while accompanying public affairs. They are called upon to share a common concern for freedom. In his remarks on world philosophy it becomes clear that this concern is not only a domestic but also a foreign policy task. For Jaspers, the challenges of mankind can be mastered in an intercultural dialogue, which also secures a lifestyle of freedom.