The Anthem Companion to Karl Jaspers

This collection of articles by an international group of leading experts has its special focus on the relevance of Karl Jasperss philosophy for the social sciences. It also includes classical evaluations of Jasperss thinking by renowned authors Talcott Parsons and Jrgen Habermas. Several chapters are devoted to the relationship between Jaspers and his teacher (Max Weber), his famous student (Hannah Arendt) and crucial figures in his intellectual world (Wilhelm Dilthey, Georg Simmel). Others deal with his relevance for disciplines from psychiatry to the study of religion and the historico-sociological research about the Axial Age, a term coined by Jaspers. In his introduction, editor Hans Joas tries to systematise Jasperss relevance for the contemporary social sciences and to explain why Parsons had called him a social scientists philosopher. The book promises to become an indispensable source in the re-evaluation of Jasperss thinking in the years to come.