CFP: Jaspers, Reason, and Understanding (at the APA Central Meeting)

Call for Proposals

Jaspers, Reason, and Understanding

Karl Jaspers, in his discussions of “Periechontology” (cf. Ontology), makes a distinction between “reason” (Vernunft) and the “understanding” or “intellect” (Verstand).  Leonard Ehrlich, Edith Ehrlich, and George B. Pepper note that for Jaspers the Encompassing of Being presents itself to us in two primordially different modes. Jaspers characterizes reason as “the bond of all modes of the Encompassing,” or, again, the bond “within us.”  “Unity and openness are, for Jaspers, a motive rather than an actualization, and it is the motive of reason…..[Reason], as the motive of unity, becomes the task for man to effect unity. The task is informed by man’s awareness of the multiplicity and disunity, defined by the challenges of one’s historic situation and animated by the freedom of Existenz engaged in its actualization.” Karl Jaspers: Basic Philosophical Writings (New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1994 [1986]), 178.

In light of the issues and debates surrounding the feasibility, necessity, and cost of immigration-- as well as the developed world’s responsibility or non-responsibility for events in the developing world-- the Karl Jaspers Society of North America (KJSNA) will be hosting panels dedicated to working through rationality and global thinking in the light of Karl Jaspers’ thought. Are western models of reason and understanding (the Intellect or rationality) universally applicable? How ought we to work toward “loving communication” between parties with contrasting worldviews? Is there a motive toward unity in our modes of reasoning or rationality that is common to both religious fundamentalisms and progressive liberalisms?  Is rationality always compatible with freedom?

Proposals may address any of these or related questions, and should be 200 words in length. Extended versions of papers presentations given at the APA meeting will be considered for publication in the journal Existenz: An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts.