THE ROLE OF BOUNDARY SITUATIONS IN KARL JASPERS' EPISTEMOLOGY AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN UNDERSTANDING

Résumé

This paper delves into Karl Jaspers' epistemology, focusing specifically on the role of boundary situations in shaping human understanding. Boundary situations, such as death, suffering, guilt, uncertainties and conflict, are moments where the limits of human knowledge are confronted, challenging the individual to transcend conventional forms of knowing. Jaspers argues that in such moments of crises, the human capacity for understanding is forced to confront its own limits, sparking a deeper, more existential mode of knowing. Jaspers' existential framework presents these situations not as purely negative experiences but opportunities for profound insight, self-realization which enables man move to a higher form of understanding. When individuals face with limits of experience, they are pushed beyond everyday rationality and begin to engage with what lies beyond comprehension, what Jaspers calls “philosophical transcendence.” This engagement is not about achieving absolute knowledge, but about recognizing the mystery and openness of existence. Through this confrontation with the unknown, individuals are liberated from illusion of total knowledge and enter a space where they confront both their own subjectivity and the ambiguity of the world around them. The implications of boundary situations for human understanding are profound: reveal the essential incompleteness and contingency of human knowledge. Instead of presenting knowledge as objective, fixed entity, Jaspers’ philosophy highlights the dynamic, existential and subjective nature of understanding. Ultimately, this paper argues that Jaspers provides a crucial lens through which contemporary human understanding can be interrogated, emphasizing the continued relevance of boundary situations in discussions about understanding and existence.