Way to Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy [Paperback]

Karl Jaspers (Author), Ralph Manheim (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 1960

One of the founders of existentialism, Karl Jaspers presents for the general reader a lucid summary of his great philosophical works. He believes that the heart of all philosophical thinking is the quest for "true Being" and that "the man who attains true awareness of his freedom gains certainty of God." In Jasper's view a man's philosophy, like the life process itself, must undergo a continuous change as a result of the development and needs of the individual and the crises he must experience. In "Way to Wisdom" he gives a brilliant and exciting introduction to an understanding of philosophy and offers the serious reader an approach to a deeper understanding.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An eloquent expression of a great hope that philosophy may again become an activity really relevant not only to the perennial problems of life and death but to the unusual configurations of such problems in our time."

About the Author

German philosopher, physician, and psychiatrist Karl Jaspers was born in 1883 and died in 1969. The great translator Ralph Manheim rendered in English such twentieth-century classics as Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum and Louis-Ferdinand Celine's Journey to the End of the Night. Richard M. Owsley, professor of philosophy at North Texas University, is president of the Karl Jaspers Society of North America. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; 2nd edition (September 10, 1960)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300001347
• ISBN-13: 978-0300001341
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #452,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An introduction to philosophising by Karl Jaspers, June 4, 2000

By 

Emmanuel T. Rakitzis - See all my reviews

This review is from: Way to Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy (Paperback)

This book originated from 12 radio talks given by Karl Jaspers, right after World War II. It is written in an extremely lucid and direct manner, and it is more of an introduction to the art, or process, of philosophising rather than to philosophy itself as a discipline. In this book existential philosophy, the brand of philosophy so successfuly cultivated by Jaspers, is described, so to speak, "from inside". There is hardly any analysis of philosophical terms, but rather a presentation of the inner process of approach to the metaphysical questions confronting the individual person. Jaspers belongs to the great idealist tradition, initiated by Plato, developed further by the medieval schoolmen, and lastly by Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schelling, Soeren Kirekegaard and others. According to Jaspers the core-meaning of man's identity is his sense of freedom. Freedom is presented as an immediate datum of consciousness, as that part of man's personality which "evades all object knowledge but is always present in him as a potentiality". Irrespective of what is omitted, this book offers a subject-matter of impeccable honesty and undiluted spirituality. This is a great book superbly well written. Also, the translation by Ralph Manheim is quite masterly. It is an out and out example of what every translation should actually be: a representation in another language of the meaning and style of the original text.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Way of The Unknown, Using The Known, Yet Never Absolute, February 10, 2004

By 

R. Schwartz (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Way to wisdom, an introduction to philosophy

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This is a great, practical and user friendly book in the basics of what philosophy is, the history of philosophy which includes the idea of the axial age, the difference between absolute and relative knowledge, the idea of nonknowledge and the connection of philosophy with science.

Jaspers, like Plato, tells us that philosophy is the direction we take, the idea of the whole picture. While science is the measurable analysis and empirical observation, philosophy is the direction behind such, the idea of why we are learning the what. This is very much like Plato's Meno, where Socrates and Meno decide that virtue is beyond knowledge and is instead the direction of opinion, or as Jaspers calls it "nonknowledge."

On page 127, Jaspers writes:

"By technically applying my knowledge I can act outwardly but nonknowledge makes possible an inner action by which I transform myself. This is another and deeper kind of thought; it is not detached from being and oriented toward an object but is a process of my innermost self, in which though and being become identical. Measured by outward, technical power, this thought of inner action is as nothing, it is no applied knowledge that can be possessed, it cannot be fashioned according to plan and purpose; it is an authentic illumination and growth into being."

Philosophy must reside in uncertainty, waywardness towards the unknown, never absolute like science. On page 129,

"Philosophy must even leave the possibility of full communication in uncertainty, though it lives by faith in communication and stakes everything on communication. We can believe in it but not know it. To believe that we possess it is to have lost it."

We must have philosophy to direct our science (virtue) and remove us froe scientific superstition and we must have science to have substance to our philosophy and remove us from philosophical superstition.

Pages 159-160:

"Any philosopher who is not trained in a scientific discipline and who fails to keep his scientific interests constantly alive will inevitably bungle and stumble and mistake uncritical rough drafts for definitive knowledge. Unless an idea is submitted to the coldly dispassionate test of scientific inquiry, it is rapidly consumed in the fire of emotions and passions, or else it withers into a dry and narrow fanaticism . . . rejecting superstitious belief in science as well as contempt of science, philosophy grants its unconditional recognition to modern science."

Jasper ends his book with a short outline on the major thinkers and writers in philosophy and our personal decision of who to study to build up our knowledge. But can virtue be taught? He endorses what an old counsel to study Plato and Kant since they cover all the essentials. An overall good read, a substantial subject in a modern society devoid of substance and profound meaning.

"Today independence seems to be silently disappearing beneath the inundation of all life by the typical, the habitual, the unquestioned commonplace." - 1954, KARL JASPERS, Way to Wisdom, An Introduction to Philosophy, p. 110

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally Satisfied, February 18, 2010

By 

apriceson (California, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Way to Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy, Second Edition (Yale Nota Bene) (Paperback)

This book arrived in pristine condition and in a very timely manner. Couldn't have had better service from this dealer.