The official Journal of the Italian Karl Jaspers Society, “Studi jaspersiani”, dedicates the next
volume (10, 2022) to:
Grenzsituation
Re-readings and interpretations
ed. by Stefania Achella, Elena Alessiato, Michael Quante
With the term Grenzsituation Karl Jaspers shaped one of the most famous concepts of his
philosophy. At the same time, he delivered to the 20. century existentialism a fascinating
category, whose evocative power is far away from being exhausted.
The Grenzsituation leads the human being to the limit of his existential possibilities and
urges him to perform “a peculiar radical transformation in the own being” by “jumping from
the loneliness of a knowing subjekt into the consciousness of his possible existence”
(Philosophie II). Moving from this intuition, a symbolic and conceptually wide use of such a
category suggests the possibility of seeing the Grenzsituation as inherent in all the human
experiences where vulnerability, incertitude, skepticism, go along with the desire for
clarification, orientation, and the search for solutions both by comprehension and practices.
Beginning by Jaspers’ thematization but without being limited to it, the issue 2022 of the
Journal “Studi Jaspersiani” is dedicated to exploring whether and in which extent the
meaning of such a category is still conceptually productive and valuable, inside and outside
Jaspers’ thought and in and out of the philosophical field.
The aims of the issue are twofold: on one hand, there is the interest at relaunching the
philosophical investigation on a category which is an essential joint in Jaspers’ philosophy for
his comprehension of the human condition; on the other hand, the proposal of moving the
category outside the philosophical perimeter of Jaspers’ thought expresses the interest in
trying to make it fruitful both for the contemporary philosophy and for other disciplines.
In the frame suggested by the issue, the interest in stimulating re-readings and
interpretations of the idea of Grenzsituaton goes along with the attempt of putting Jaspers’
intuition to the test of the challenges and questions brought about by the contemporary
world in the different fields of our life, thought, and activity: from the sanitary to the
environmental emergence, from the intercultural to the social challenges, from the literary
to the psychological research, from the frontiers of justice to those of technology.
In virtue of such an extended research frame, we invite to reflect, among others, on the
following issues:
- which is the meaning of the Grenz (limit) and how it is to understand;
- Jaspers’ comprehension of Grenzsituationen after a century;
- Grenzsituationen and limited solutions in an interconnected and digitalized world;
- the possible meaning of Grenzsituationen in the virtual world;
- possible declinations of Grenzsituationen both in the intercultural relationships and in
the migration experiences; - Grenzsituationen in connection to Anthropocene and climate change;
- Gendering Grenzsituationen;
- Grenzsituationen as life crisis (Lebenskrise) in the medical and psychological
experiences; - Grenzsituation as emergency situation or state of exception (Ausnahmezustand) in our
democracies.
Submission Date: 15. April 2022
Notification Date: 15. June 2022
KARL JASPERS
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CONTATTI
Società Italiana Karl Jaspers / Italian Karl Jaspers Society
Sede Legale:
Università di Napoli Federico II
Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici – Sezione di Filosofia Via Porta di Massa, 1 – 80133 Napoli (NA) – Italy
Web: www.karljaspers.it
Mail: societajaspersiana@gmail.com
