Abstract
Jaspers’ views on communication and his approach to the question of listening, both underwent an evolution in which World War II and the first years thereafter played a crucial role. In this process, Jaspers journeyed from listening to the great minds of the past, through an inward dialogue with them, to one-sided lecturing while his audience was engaged in a straight-line listening, to an intimate dialogue with those he considered like-minded, to a multi-faceted dialogue, and finally to listening to his contemporaries and learning how to practice transactional listening-in-conversation in the process of a multi-layered communication he called a loving struggle. This evolution, paralleled by the transition of Japers’ philosophy from local-centered to world-centered makes his thinking attractive and useful today.
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- 1.
Karl Jaspers, “Philosophische Autobiographie,” in Karl Jaspers: Werk und Wirkung, ed. R. Klaus (Munich: R. Piper & Co., 1963), pp. 19–129 (p. 117). Unless otherwise noted, all translations in this essay are mine. [Henceforth cited as PA]
- 2.
See Krystyna Górniak-Kocikowska, “Problem z nazwaniem nowego globalnego spoleczenstwa,” in Osoba w Spoleczenstwie Informacyjnym, ETHOS, Vol. 69–70 (Rome: John Paul II Institute Catholic University of Lublin, John Paul II Foundation, 2005), pp. 77–99.
- 3.
Gemma Corradi Fiumara, The Other Side of Language: A Philosophy of Listening, trans. Charles Lambert (London, New York: Routledge, 1990), p. 1. [Henceforth cited as OSL]
- 4.
Karl Jaspers, Wahrheit, Freiheit und Friede (Munich: R. Piper & Co. Verlag, 1958), p. 10 (my emphasis).
- 5.
For example The International Listening Association which “promotes the study, development, and teaching of listening and the practice of effective listening skills and techniques.” (ILA website)
- 6.
Karl Jaspers, Philosophy, trans. E.B. Ashton, Vol. 2 (Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press, 1970), p. 83. [Henceforth cited as P with volume number]
- 7.
“…der nichts von Wahrheit weiß und wissen will.” Karl Jaspers, Vernunft und Widervernunft in Unserer Zeit: Drei Gastvorlesungen, gehalten auf Einladung des Asta an der Universität Heidelberg (Munich: R. Piper & Co. Verlag, 1950), p. 55. [Henceforth cited as VW]
- 8.
Leonard J. Waks, (2009), Hearing is a Participation: John Dewey on Listening, Friendship, and Participation in Democratic Society, unpublished manuscript (my emphasis). I would like to express my sincere thanks to the author for allowing to quote from his work in progress.
- 9.
Jim Garrison, “A Deweyan Theory of Democratic Listening,” Educational Theory, 1996, Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 429–451.
- 10.
See Hasan Haluk Erdem, “Jaspers’ Weltphilosophie und ihre Bedeutung für die universale Kommunikation,” in Karl Jaspers: Geschichtliche Wirklichkeit mit Blick auf die Grundfragen der Menschheit; Karl Jaspers: Historic Actuality in View of Fundamental Problems of Mankind, eds. Andreas Cesana and Gregory J. Walters (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2008), pp. 207–218 (here p. 213). [Henceforth cited as WP]
- 11.
Revue Internantional de Philosophie, 1983, Vol. 37, No. 147, pp. 390–409. Reprinted as Karl Jaspers, “Einsamkeit (Nachlassmanuskript)” in Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Karl-Jaspers-Gesellschaft, Jahrgang 1, eds. Elisabeth Hybašek and Kurt Salamun (VWGÖ: Innsbruck, 1988), pp. 20–31.
- 12.
Karl Jaspers, The Idea of the University, trans. H.A.T. Reiche and H.F. Vanderschmidt (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1959).
- 13.
Krystyna Górniak-Kocikowska, “The Relevance of Jaspers’ Idea of Communication in the Age of Global Society,” in Karl Jaspers’ Philosophie: Gegenwärtigkeit und Zukunft; Karl Jaspers’s Philosophy: Rooted in the Present, Paradigm for the Future, eds. Richard Wisser and Leonard H. Ehrlich, co-eds. Andreas Cesana and Gregory Walters (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2003), pp. 107–114.
- 14.
Karl Jaspers, The Question of German Guilt, trans. E.B. Ashton (New York, NY: The Dial Press, 1947), p. 122. [Henceforth cited as QG]
- 15.
Leonard H. Ehrlich, “Being and Truth: Heidegger vis-a-vis Jaspers,” in Philosopher among Philosophers; Philosoph unter Philosophen, eds. Richard Wisser and Leonard H. Ehrlich (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1993), pp. 121–138 (here p. 129).
- 16.
Karl Jaspers, The Future of Germany, trans. and ed. E.B. Ashton (Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press, 1967).
- 17.
See Jürgen Habermas, Philosophisch-Politische Profile (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1984) [Jürgen Habermas, ed. (1984), Observation on ‘The Spiritual Situation of the Age’: Contemporary German Perspectives, trans. Andrew Buchwalter (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press).] and Golo Mann, Erinnerungen und Gedanken (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1986).
- 18.
Paul Meyer-Gutzwiller, “Karl Jaspers und der Rundfunk,” in Karl Jaspers: Werk und Wirkung, ed. Klaus Piper (Munich: R. Piper & Co., 1963), pp. 169–171 (here p. 169). [Henceforth cited as KJR]
- 19.
Leonard H. Ehrlich, “Heideggers Seinsdenken aus der Sicht von Arendt und Jaspers,” in Karl Jaspers’ Philosophie: Gegenwärtigkeit und Zukunft; Karl Jaspers’s Philosophy: Rooted in the Present, Paradigm for the Future, eds. Richard Wisser and Leonard H. Ehrlich, co-eds. Andreas Cesana and Gregory Walters (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2003), pp. 107–114 (here p. 113).
- 20.
For example, Bernd Weidmann, “Karl Jaspers und die studentische Protestbewegung. Der Umschlag von Kommunikation in Kampf am Beispiel Rudi Dutschkes,” in Karl Jaspers: Geschichtliche Wirklichkeit mit Blick auf die Grundfragen der Menschheit; Karl Jaspers: Historic Actuality in View of Fundamental Problems of Mankind, eds. Andreas Cesana and Gregory J. Walters (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2008), pp. 385–405. [Henceforth cited as PB]
- 21.
For example, Svetaketu, a character in the Chandogya Upanisad, Book Six, cited in John Koller and Patricia Koller, A Sourcebook in Asian Philosophy (New York, NY: Macmillan, 1991), pp. 25–30.
- 22.
Karl Jaspers, The Atom Bomb and the Future of Man, trans. E.B. Ashton (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1961), p. 237.
- 23.
William Kluback, “Philosophy’s Discordant Voice. The Most Powerful Instrument of Perfidy: Language,” in Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Karl-Jaspers-Gesellschaft, eds. Elisabeth Hybašek and Kurt Salamun, Jahrgang 3/4 (VWGÖ, 1990/1991), pp. 204–216 (here p. 206). [Henceforth cited as PDV]
- 24.
Karl Jaspers, “Letter to Gertrud Jaspers on Her Eightieth Birthday,” trans. Edith Ehrlich in Karl Jaspers’ Philosophie: Gegenwärtigkeit und Zukunft; Karl Jaspers’s Philosophy: Rooted in the Present, Paradigm for the Future, eds. Richard Wisser and Leonard H. Ehrlich, co-eds. Andreas Cesana and Gregory Walters (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2003), pp. 309–328 (here p. 316).
- 25.
Martin Heidegger/Karl Jaspers, Briefwechsel 1920–1963, eds. Walter Biemel and Hans Saner Hans (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klosterman, 1990).
- 26.
Indu Sarin, The Global Vision: Karl Jaspers (New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishers, 2009), p. 13.
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Górniak-Kocikowska, K. (2012). The Factor of Listening in Karl Jaspers’ Philosophy of Communication. In: Wautischer, H., Olson, A., Walters, G. (eds) Philosophical Faith and the Future of Humanity. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2223-1_34
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