Way to Wisdom

A short introduction to philosophy by the German psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers, first given as twelve radio lectures and published in 1950. Jaspers presents philosophy not as a set of results but as an activity anyone can take up. Its sources are wonder, doubt and the shock of 'limit situations' (Grenzsituationen), such as death, suffering, struggle and guilt, which we can neither change nor escape. He then introduces 'the Encompassing' (das Umgreifende), rendered 'the Comprehensive' in the English translation: the horizon within which every subject and object appears, and which can never itself become an object. Later chapters treat the idea of God, the unconditional imperative, man, the world, faith and enlightenment, history, the independent philosopher and the philosophical life. Throughout, Jaspers defends 'philosophical faith', a trust in transcendence that rests on no revelation or dogma, and stresses communication between people as the medium in which truth is found.

It is one of the most accessible short books by a major existentialist thinker, and a humane introduction to what philosophising can mean in an ordinary life.