“Philosophical Way of Living” as a Characteristic of Human Culture (According to Karl Jaspers’ “Introduction to Philosophy”)

Abstract

The article revolves around one of the most significant problems of human existence: comprehending those cultural practices that define individual lives. Analysis is based on the close examination of specific concepts introduced by Karl Jaspers, a German psychiatrist and philosopher and an author of “The Axial Age” of culture. Jaspers maintains that only philosophy as an individual attempt to find the truth gives a person a chance to “become a human” on the one hand and to live according to the principle of “standing on the road” on the other hand, the latter constituting one of the most important means to culturally construe and reconstrue the truth, to interpret, understand, and comprehend the world.Jaspers’ views on human nature are interesting and noteworthy as the concept of “standing on the road” as a manifestation of active thinking also refers to the reflexion on active thinking.  A person who tries to discover and mould himself/herself becomes one with the truth. By incessantly developing himself/herself, an individual grants a cultural value to the surrounding environment.