jaspers in english - failure of communication

8/10/2019 Jaspers in English - Failure of Communication

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nternational Phenomenological Society

Jaspers in English: A Failure of CommunicationAuthor(s): C. F. WallraffSource: Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Jun., 1977), pp. 537-548Published by: International Phenomenological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2106433 .Accessed: 07/05/2014 15:58

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DISCUSSION

JASPERS IN ENGLISH: A FAILURE OF COMMUNICATION

Students of the late' Karl Jaspers cannot but be disturbed by thecontrast between the abundance of Jaspers literature in English, onthe one hand, and the limited range of Jaspers' influence in Anglo-American countries, on the other. It is as though the more Jaspers istranslated, the less he is read.

Although as yet there is no English version of his ponderous andprovocative Von der Wahrheit,2 still, more than a score of his writ-ings, including several of his most weighty philosophical pronounce-ments, are now available in English.3 And within the last few years anumber of thoughtful books explaining his "Existenzphilosophie"have been published in America.4 This is in line with internationaltrends: more than a decade ago it could be said that nearly a millioncopies of his works had been sold in Germany,. and that translationsof them had appeared in 160 editions in all of 16 different languages.5

At the same time, judging from current philosophical journals,one must conclude that Jaspers' influence in English speaking coun-

1 Karl Jaspers died of a stroke in Basel, Switzerland, on Feb. 26, 1969, at the ageof 86. His wife, Gertrud Jaspers, who throughout his entire life as a scholar served ashis amanuensis, died, also in Basel, on May 25, 1974, at the age of 95.

2 A translation of Von der Wahrheit (Munich: Piper, 1947), pp. xxiii, 1103, to beundertaken by Professor Leonard H. Ehrlich, is being considered for publication by theUniversity of Massachusetts Press.

3 Seventeen such works are listed at the very beginning of Philosophy is for Every-man, trans. R.F.C. Hull and Grete Wels (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965),p. ii. The list can now be enlarged to include that book itself, the larger Nietzsche,Philosophical Faith and Revelation, Existentialism and Humanism, The Future of Ger-many, and the three volume Philosophy. Cf. Hans Saner, "Bibliographie der Werke undSchriften," Karl Jaspers: Werk und Wirkung, ed. Klaus Piper (Munich: Piper, 1963).For information about possible posthumous publications, see Hans Saner, "Zu KarlJaspers' Nachlass," Karl Jaspers in der Discussion, ed. Hans Saner (Munich: Piper,1973) pp. 447-63.

4 Paul Arthur Schilpp, (ed.), The Philosophy of Karl Jaspers (New York: Tudor,1957); Sebastian Samay, Reason Revisited (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre DamePress, 1971); Oswald 0. Schrag, Existence, Existenz, and Transcendence: The Philosophyof Karl Jaspers (Pittsburgh, Pa.. Duquesne University Press, 1971), and C. F. Wallraff,Karl Jaspers: An Introduction to His Philosophy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UniversityPress, 1970). A book or series of books on Jaspers by Leonard Ehrlich should soon bepublished by the University of Massachusetts Press.

5 Klaus Piper, (ed.), op. cit., pp. 13-14. Furthermore, in Japan the entire first edition-15,000 copies in all-of a Japanese translation of Karl Jaspers in Selbstzeugnissen undBilddokumenten (Hamburg: Rowolt, 1970) was sold out, according to its author HansSaner (personal communication, 5-31-73).

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538 PHILOSOPHY NDPHENOMENOLOGICALESEARCH

tries is virtually nil. It is as though this remarkable man lies beyondour horizon. Accordingly Jaspers, with whom communication isalmost an obsession,6 and who, as James Collins finds, would seem,of all existentialists, "most likely to receive a sympathetic hearing

among philosophers in America,"7 is, from our standpoint, virtuallyincommunicado. The question I should like to consider here concernsthe extent to which this state of affairs is in large part a result offaulty English translations. Can it be that these diverge so widelyfrom the German texts that they do not enable even the most knowl-edgeable and discerning readers to come to grips with Jaspers'thoughts?

This is not the usual view of the matter, for it is prima facieapparent that Jaspers has been extremely fortunate in his translators.There are a large number of them: since they frequently collaborate,there are about as many translators as books translated.8 Further-more, at least half of the work - and by far the most important half- has been done by Ralph Manheim and E. B. Ashton, two eminenttranslators who together constitute, in effect, the voice of Jaspers inAmerica today.

Manheim is of course known to a large number of educatedreaders. His extraphilosophical contributions include translations ofthree novels by Gunther Grass, and of a

novel by Louis-FerdinandCeline for which he received a National Book Awards prize. It is notsurprising that Time has taken him to be "one of the world's mosttalented translators."' As a philosophical interpreter he has provided,in addition to a short book by Martin Heidegger,10 a series of books byJaspers: the six lectures on philosophical faith that marked hisarrival in Basel,"1 a series of radio lectures constituting an introduc-tion to Existenzphilosophie,l2 essays on the philosophical significance

6 One typical statement, chosen moreor less at random from many: "Wahrheitsuchen, das heisst immer, zur Kommunikation bereit sein. Kommunikation auch von

anderen erwarten." Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte (Munich: R. Piper, 1950),p. 153.

7 The Existentialists: A Critical Study (Chicago, Ill.: Henry Regnery, 1952), p. 88.8 A tentative but by no means exhaustive list would include: E. B. Ashton, M.

Bullock, K. W. Deutsch, W. Earle, H. E. Fischer, S. Goodman, N. Guterman, M. W.Hamilton, J. Hoenig, R. F. C. Hull, W. Kimmel, W. Kluback, L. B. Lefebre, E. T. Long,R. Manheim, H. T. Moore, C. Paul, E. Paul, E. A. Reiche, P. A. Schilpp, F. J. Schmitz,R. G. Smith, H. F. Vanderschmidt, C. F. Wallraff, and G. Wels.

9 Time, April 13, 1970, p. 73.10 An

Introduction to Metaphysics (New York: Doubleday, 1961).11 The Perennial Scope of Philosophy (New York, Philosophical Library, 1949).

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JASPERS N ENGLISH: A FAILURE F COMMUNICATION 539

of Leonardo, Descartes, and Max Weber,3 and, above all, two largevolumes dealing with the history of philosophy.14

Ashton became a translator of Jaspers' books shortly after WorldWar II. He began in 1947 with The Question of German Guilt."5 There-after he published a series of translations of writings leading up tothe monumental Philosophical Faith and Revelation" and the recentlycompleted Philosophy7 - a book which Jaspers regarded as his fav-orite work."8 From the beginning, Ashton impressed his readers as asuperior stylist with a remarkable knack for rendering even themost difficult Jaspersian sentences in straightforward and intelligibleEnglish. A decade ago I felt that the high level he attained was "morenearly an ideal to be pursued than a goal to be reached."19 Jasperscalled him "an outstanding translator."20 And, in addition, as Ward

Shaw stated, "Ashton is Jaspers' major English translator."2In a word, then, about half of the now available translations ofJaspers' works, and far more than half of the translations of hisscholarly philosophical22 studies, have been prepared by these twoeminent literati. Manheim and Ashton have, in effect, divided thefield between them, the former having concentrated on Jaspers' inter-pretations of "the great philosophers" of the last 2500 years, the latteron Jaspers' own philosophy viewed in its twentieth century context.

Given this situation, it is not difficult to evaluate the lines of

12 The Way to Wisdom (New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1954).13 Three Essays (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964)14 The Great Philosophers, 2 vols. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962-1966).15 New York: Dial Press, 1947.16 New York: Harper and Row, 1967.17 Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1969-71.18 "Of all my books," Jaspers wrote, "Philosophy is closest to my heart." See

"Epilogue 1955" to Philosophy I (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1969), p. 5.19 Karl Jaspers, Nietzsche: An Introduction to the Understanding of His Philosophi-

cal Activity, trans. C. F. Wallraff and F. J. Schmitz (Tucson, Arizona: University ofArizona Press, 1965), p. viii.

20 "Herr Ashton ist in der Tat ein hervorragender Ubersetzer." Personal communi-cation, 1-11-62.

21 The Library Journal, Sept. 15, 1969, p. 3070.22 That Jaspers, wholly apart from his work in philosophy, enjoyed a distinguished

career as a psychiatrist should not be forgotten. As a young man he authored a sur-prising number of scientific articles and reports. (See Schilpp, op. cit., pp. 872-73).In 1913 his Aligemeine Psychopathologie (Berlin: Springer, pp. xv, 338) appeared. Theseventh edition of this book, which was completely revised during and after World WarII, is now available in a translation by J. Hoenig and M. W. Hamilton as GeneralPsychopathology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964), pp. xxxii, 922. His patho-graphical analysis, entitled Strindberg und van Gogh, translated by Oswald Grunow,will soon be published by the University of Arizona Press.



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communication between Jaspers and the Anglo-American readers,and to estimate the extent to which Jaspers' message is gettingthrough. To this end one need only compare a fair sample of thetranslations of these two chief interpreters with the German texts,

for communication can hardly rise above the level attained by themost gifted and famous of the translators involved - especially whenthey have done the lion's share of the work. If communication breaksdown at this level, then the translations in toto must fail of theirpurpose.

Beginning with The Great Philosophers,23 my objection to thisotherwise first rate work of Manheim's (whether the final responsi-bility lies with the translator, the editor, or the publisher) amountssimply to a protest against the many unindicated and seemingly

capricious omissions, both small and large. Surely the statement atthe beginning of the book: "Originally published in German as partof Die grossen Philosophen I"24 must be taken to mean that this isonly the first volume of a two volume translation of the Germanoriginal (which, indeed, it is), and not that the book is intended as acondensation. Why, then, should an 8 page "Introduction" be sub-stituted for the 73 page "Einleitung" of the original? But this is onlyone instance:

If we concentrate on the lengthy and distinguished section onKant,25 we find that many statements are somehow lost in translationfor no discoverable reason. Why tell us, for example, that when Kantwas a young man he was "carried away by a whirl of social distrac-tions," and then omit to mention that women of considerable socialstanding were interested in him - including two English ladies visit-ing Kdnigsberg?26 And how justify an omission of a brief descriptionof the town of Kdnigsberg?27

23 The Great Philosophers, I (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962) is a trans-lation of about half of Die grossed Philosophen, I (Munich: Piper, 1957). (The otherhalf, plus a section on Nicholas of Cusa, was soon thereafter presented in a secondvolume.) The English version will hereafter be referred to as GPT, the German assimply GP. Also Philosophical Faith and Revelation (New York: Harper and Row, 1967)will be called PGT, and the original, Der philosophische Glaube angesichts der Offen-barung, (Munich: Piper, 1962), simply PG. Philosophy (Chicago, Ill.: University ofChicago Press, 1967-1971) and Philosophie, the original, (Berlin: Springer, 1956) will bedesignated as PHT and PH.

24 GPT, p. iv.25 Published separately as a paperback: Kant, ed. Hannah Arendt (New York:

Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962), pp. ix, 157.26GP, p. 398; GPT, p. 231.27 Ibid.



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However trivial such items may be, it would be difficult to justifythe sizable omission that appears in a discussion of the "Ideas of purereason." Here half a page devoted to the "Ideas" - or principles-of "homogeneity," "specification," and "continuity" is omitted entire-

ly, while the immediately following section which deals with the"methodological," "psychological," and "objective" functions of Ideasis severely pruned.28 This is unfortunate, both because of the intrinsicimportance of Kant's "Ideas of pure reason," and because of themajor role which these Ideas play within Jaspers' own Existenzphilo-sophie. In a well-known appendix to Die Psychologie der Weltan-schauungen29 he stresses their overriding significance. His all-impor-tant distinction between the "nonknowledge" of philosophical faithand the knowledge of science30 is based upon the Kantian contrast ofIdeas of reason and categories of the understanding. And in 1950 hereaffirmed in Heidelberg the central significance of the source andrepository of these Ideas by stating that although he had long usedthe term "Existenzphilosophie" to designate his own view, he hadcome to prefer the expression "philosophy of reason" (Philosophieder Vernunft).31

It seems doubtful that Jaspers would have approved of suchomissions. In a personal letter to me he expressed himself as opposedto condensation, even in a cheap paperback edition, and added thatif a publisher insisted on it, he would wish to participate in the deci-sion-making.32

Ashton's deletions are no less remarkable. Perhaps the policywhich he was to follow was best expressed in the "Translator's Note"to one of his earlier and more popular books.33 In this book he admit-tedly left out some "excursions"34 and "pruned" various elaborations.

28 GP, pp. 467-69; GPT, pp. 282-83.29 4th ed.: Berlin, J. Springer, 1954, pp. 465-86.30See C. F. Wallraff, Karl Jaspers: An Introduction to His Philosophy (Princeton,

N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1970) pp. 32-34.31Vernunft und Widervernunft in unser Zeit (Munich, Piper, 1950), p. 50.32 Apparently the idea of abridging an original hardback edition never occurred to

him: "Sie erwdgen eine verkarzte Paperback-Ausgabe, die nach angemessener Zeitspater erscheinen ko'nnte. Ist es nicht modglich, das Buch unverkurst ( ) in dem gleichenSitze der schon vorliegt, spater als Paperbach heratiszubrigen?" (As it turned out later,the unabridged Nietzsche book was in fact brought out as a paperback without anytextual changes at 1/3 the original price.) And further, changes should be made onlywith his consent: "Wenn der Verleger es unbedingt verlangt, wurden Sie mir vielleichtVorschldge darhiber machen, welche Teile man auslassen ko'nnte. ... (May 3, 1964).

33The Future of Mankind (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1961) pp. v-vi.34Ibid., p. v.



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Still "this book is not an abridgment,"35 since "all the points, ques-tions, arguments, or theses of the original are in the English ver-sion."36

In Jaspers' "Preface" to Philosophical Faith and Revelation

Ashton suppresses (perhaps at the request of the publisher and/oreditor) Jaspers' explicit rejection of precisely the title which waschosen for the English edition.37 And near the end of this same bookhe, with seeming arbitrariness, excludes an excursus, though forreasons of his own he includes another.38 Other omissions occur fre-quently throughout the text.39

But the most serious damage is done, not by unindicated omis-sions, but by various thoughtless and misleading renditions. Timeand again the English version brings about a complete breakdown ofcommunication by falsifying the original. Summarily stated: (1) hecreates immense confusion by needlessly obliterating fundamentaldistinctions; (2) he is careless: he repeatedly provides far-fetchedinterpretations instead of faithful translations; (3) he frustratesscholars by neither openly employing nor explicitly rejecting Jaspers'Kantian terminology; (4) when speaking in propria persona hissuperficial, condescending, and extraneous criticisms of Jaspersturn away otherwise interested readers and call his own earnestnessand reliability into question. Let us examine these matters in order.

1. Confusion is certainly compounded beyond necessity when, ona single page at the beginning of Jaspers' magnum opus, the sameexpression, viz., "die Geschichte der Philosophie," is translated bothas "philosophical history" and as "history of philosophy."40 This mis-take is repeated a few pages later.41

It is simply not the case that, as Ashton affirms, the Englishlanguage fails to provide any clear way of differentiating between"Realitdt and Wirklichkeit."42 For many years translators have dealt

35 Ibid., p. vi.36 Ibid.37 Jaspers' statement: "Der Titel 'Philosophischer Glaube und Offenbarung' wdre

ungemass. Denn er wurde uberlegenzen Standpunkt ausserhalb beider beanspruchen,den ich nicht einnehme." PG, p. 8. Cf. PGT, p. xxvi.

38 PG, p. 484, PGT, p. 325.39 See PGT, pp. 55, 61, 77, 124, 142, 286-87, 361. Cf. PG, pp. 103, 111, 133, 194, 221,

429-30, 534.40 PHT, p. 8; PH, p. xix.41 PHT, p. 14; PH, p. xxvi-xxvii.42

PHT, p. xvii. A good example of Ashton's practice is found on page 93 of PGT,where "reality" is used for both "Realitdt" and "Wirklichkeit." Cf. PG, p. 155b.



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with this by simply rendering "Wirklichkeit" as "actuality." The dis-tinction is much too important to be overlooked:43 reality, as Jasperstells us at length, is present to us from the beginning; actuality is theterminus ad quem of philosophizing."44

Wilhelm Dilthey's celebrated distinction between the Naturwis-senschaf ten, or natural sciences, and the Geisteswissenschaf ten, orhumanistic sciences - a differentiation suggestive of C. P. Snow's"two cultures"45 -loses its sense when the latter group is named the"intellectual sciences,"46 as though some sciences were more "intellec-tual" than mathematics and physics. Here as elsewhere there areprecedents that could be followed: Heinrich Kluiver calls the Geistes-wissenschaften simply "cultural sciences,"47 Hodges, an authority onDilthey, proffered the term "human studies,"48 while Herbert Spiegel-berg49 and Richard Palmer50 prefer the more capricious expression:"the social sciences and the humanities." Jaspers was the first tointroduce this distinction to German psychiatrists and it has playedan important role in his thinking ever since.51

2. Ashton repeatedly sacrifices semantic to esthetic considera-tions, factuality to plausibility, accuracy, to style, and clarity ant-distinctness to a semipopular and, I believe, meretricious chiaroscuro.Why should he tell us, for instance, that "the use of . . . such words asidea, mind, soul, substance, Existenz, world" "has been held against

43 I agree with Walter Kaufmann's statement in Hegel: Reinterpretation, Texts, andCommentary (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1965): "It is essential to translateWirklichkeit and ivirklich as actuality and actual, not as reality and real" (p. 381).

44 This point is developed in extenso in Chap. III of Jaspers' Existenzphilosophie(Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1964), pp. 55-90.

45 See The Two Cultures (London: Cambridge University Press, 1969).46PHT, p. 207; PH, p. 188.47 "Supplement: Contemporary German Psychology," in Gardner Murphy, Historical

Introduction to Modern Psychology, 3d ed. rev. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.,1932) pp. 417-456.

48 The Philosophy of Wilhelm Dilthey (London: Routledge & Paul, 1952).49 The Phenomenological Movement: A Historical Introduction (The Hague, Holland:

Martinus Nijhoff, 1960), I, 59.50 Hermeneutics (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1969), p. 98.51 See, for example, Jaspers' Allgemeine Psychopathologie (Berlin: Springer, 1959),

p. 642. Having used the distinction between "erkldrende" and "verstehende" psychologythroughout the entire book, he now relates it to the broader distinction here in ques-tion: "Nun ist Naturwvissenschaft zwar Grundlage und iwesentliches Element der Psy-chopathologie, aber ebenso sind es die Geisteswissenschaften, und dadurch wird die

Psychopathologie keineswegs weniger wissenschaftlich, sondern auch auf andere weisewissenschaf tlich. "



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German thinkers in all fields,"52 when, in fact, all but one of theseterms belongs to the vocabulary of the British empiricists?53

That he is careless in his choice of words is obvious. The crucialterm "Existenz," which he usually italicizes and leaves untranslated- the normal procedure today - is, on one occasion, translated as

"humanity," and, on another, entirely omitted.54Since our language would appear to offer the precise equivalentof "Phantasie," one is puzzled at finding that he often translates thisterm as "imagination,"55 and even, on one occasion, as "mind."56

While "Geist" is explicitly said to mean "mind,"57 t is sometimesidentified with "spirit,"58 and more often with "imagination."59 Onesimply does not know when Geist (as basic a term to Jaspers as toHegel) is meant. Finally, confusion is compounded when "Die Phan-tasie des Geistes" turns out (incredibly) to mean simply "our imagin-ation."60

It would be easy to expatiate upon the mischief caused by his useof "adopt" for "aneignen,"61 the nasty little verb "void" for Hegel'smore dignified "aufheben,"62 "existence" for "Dasein,"63 "rapport"for "Verstehen,""4 "mental images" for "Gestalten,"65 and the like.

52 PHT, p. 14. This word list, as employed by Jaspers, appears on page 272 of PHT.53 The British empiricists, of course, used all of them save one. And perhaps we

do well to remember that E. B. Tichener, the British psychologist, used the term"Existentialism" to distinguish his Cornell school from other schools. See Edna Heid-breder, Seven Psychologies (New \York. Appleton-Century, 1933), p. 120.

54PGT, p. 5 and p. 60. Cf. PG, p. 31 and p. 110.55 PGT, pp. 64-66; PG, pp. 114-16.56 PGT, p. 69; PG, p. 122.57 PHT, p. xxi. Cf. PGT, p. 64.58 PGT, p. 347 and 359. Cf. p. 514 and p. 532.59 PGT, 65, 66 and 69. Cf. PG, pp. 116-17, and p. 122.60 PGT, p. 64; PG, p. 115.61 "Translator's Note," PHT, p. xix. It should be noted that I must "assimilate"

much that I would be unwilling to "adopt," as, e.g., Berkeley's subjective idealism.62 Ibid., p. 20. To at least one reader the verb "void" simply reeks of the outhouse

and the Krankenhaus.63 Ibid., p. xvi. To be sure, "Dasein" is often translated as "existence" or "empirical

existence." Still the two terms are hardly exact equivalents as Ashton claims. "Dasein"could not possibly be simply the same "existence" that philosophers are accustomedto contrast with "essence." And "existence" is not the "Dasein" which is carefullydescribed on p. 63 of PGT. The meaning of the term is elaborated upon on pages 53-63of Von der Wahrheit (Munich: Piper, 1947). See also Reason and Existenz, trans.William Earle (New York: Noonday Press, 1955), pp. 54-55.

64Verstehen in Dilthey's sense, a process to which the youthful Jaspers introducedhis colleagues, is often translated "understanding." It refers to our direct awarenessof the experiences of other persons. See Hodges, op. cit.

65 "Spiel der Formen der Gestalten" becomes (incredibly) "playing with images"(PUT), p. 70). Cf. PG 123.



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3. That "Jaspers takes his basic philosophical vocabulary fromKant" is said to be "the first hurdle facing a translator."66 But whya "hurdle"? Apparently because the "Kant [who already] exists inEnglish"67 is but a travesty of the original: Some of the German

words that gave rise to an "academically sanctioned diet of reconditeEnglish expressions" were "mistranslated from the start,"68 and nowhave to be corrected. Max Muller,69 one gathers, along with NormanKemp Smith,70 fell short of the mark. Whatever the merits of thiscontention, it is quite obvious that the invention of a new Kantterminology at this time is bound to place the reader who is acquaint-ed with the generally accepted versions of The Critique of Pure Rea-son - along with the dozen or so standard histories of philosophy-at a distinct disadvantage.

While Jaspers was himself a severe critic of the academic philo-sophies of his day," he would not have defended the radical separat-ism here represented. For he repeatedly stressed the extent to whichphilosophic terms receive their meanings from the historic contextsin which they appear. Ashton's version, with its novel vocabulary, islike a historical play in which the main characters have been assignednew and inconsistent names: as though, for example, our primalfather is now called Cain, and now Noah.

This is no exaggeration. The "I think" which for Kant was thesubject of all cognitive activities, is now identified with the "cogito,"72and now with the "thinking person."73 The "universally valid" (allge-meingiiltig) becomes the "generally valid"74 (generally or usually butnot always?), and the verb "scheitern" (to be "shipwrecked" or to

66 PHT, p. xv.67 Ibid.68 Ibid.69 As Walter Kaufmann points out, Max Muller, being "completely bilingual" and

a great scholar "was perfectly equipped to translate Kant's Kritik." Philosophic Classics(Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. 1968), II, 364.

70 Author of the celebrated A Commentary to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (NewYork: Humanities Press, 1962), pp. lxi, 651.

71 See my Karl Jaspers: An Introduction to His Philosophy, p. 4 and pp. 125-130.72 PGT, p. 64; PG, p. 115.73 PGT, p. 70; PG, p. 123.74 PGT, p. 62 and p. 357; PG, p. 113 and p. 528.



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"founder") - a basic cipher - may mean simply "to trip himself,""5or to have "an end put to . . .xp76

One wonders why Ashton should claim that "der Verstand,"(which admittedly "comes from the verb verstehen, to understand")7being altogether different from "Verstindnis," "the German word forunderstanding," does not mean "understanding," but "intellect. "78This, of course, is indefensible: (a) It contradicts standard German-English dictionaries which give "understanding" as the first meaningof "der Verstand."79 (b) It runs counter to Jaspers himself, who care-fully explains that it was Spinoza who translated "ratio" as "Ver-nunft" and "intellectus" as "Verstand," while Kant did precisely theopposite." (c) Being at loggerheads with the usage of knowledgeablereaders, it obstructs communication. (d) It is not consistently main-tained by Ashton himself, who does not reserve "understanding" forVerstdndnis merely. "Verstehen,"'81 nd even "Verbindung"82 may alsomean "understanding."

4. The disparaging comments that appear in the "Translator'sNote"83 would, if taken at face value, simply mean that Philosophyis not worth reading. Here we are told - among other things (videsupra) - that Jaspers is a relativist; that he fails to reach firmconclusions; that he does not practice what he preaches; and that heoffers preposterous definitions. Let us consider this damning indict-

ment:"To begin with," we read, "relativity is the key to words peculiar-ly identified with Jaspers . . . Relativism shows . . . in his warningsof absolutizing and definitive conclusions."84 Nothing could be more

75Nietzsche and Christianitv (Chicago: Regnery, 1961), p. 71. Cf. Nietzsche und dasChristentum (Munich: Piper, 1947), p. 49.

76 Thus "Die menschliche Dinge scheitern am Chaos wie an der totalen Ordnung"(PG, p. 70) becomes "Either chaos or total order may put an end to life . .(PGT, p. 32).

77"Translator's Note," PHT, p. xv.78 Ibid.

79 See, for example, Cassell's New German-English Dictionary (New York: Funk andWagnalls, 1936), p. 676.

80 "If we translate Spinoza's intellectus as 'understanding' . . . and his ratio asreason,' his use of terms becomes the opposite of Kant's." GPT, II, 298. Cf., p. 782.

81 "Der . . . Sinn des Verstehens des Verstandenen" (PG, p. 123) becomes "theunderstanding of what has been understood." PGT, p. 70.

82 "Das Verlangen ist, dieses Grundwissen, das Bedingung eines allgemeinenSichverbindens ist, selber in der Verbindung zu entfalten" (PG, p. 151) becomes "Weask that this basic knowledge, this condition of general understanding, be developed in

the understanding." (PGT, p. 90)83 PHT, pp. xiii-xxi.84 PHT, p. xiv.



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JASPERS N ENGLISH: A FAILURE OF COMMUNICATION 547

misleading. One can, of course, accept the facts of relativity withoutbeing a relativist. And Ashton's own translation shows that Jaspersabhors relativism: In a brief section, entitled "Relativism; Fanati-cism; the Void" we find him saying: "Today contemplation has ad-vanced so far that we have grown conscious of it as a universalrelativism. Everything is valid from a specific, definable standpointwhich I can take, abandon, and change.... The result would be thatI am no longer myself. When someone wants to get hold of me Ialready am someone else.... "85 To accept relativism is to give myself up.

Jaspers need not be saddled with a "principle of inconclusive-ness"86 simply because he calls our attention to such matters as theinability of science to gain complete knowledge of the universe, theobvious limitations of psychology and psychiatry, and the inevitableinadequacy of all human ideas of the Deity. "Inconclusiveness" cer-tainly sounds different in German: that philosophy is "inconclusive"means only that it "remains open" (bleibt offen),87 while a "refusalto be conclusive"88 amounts to no more than "the openness of myexpositions" (die Offenheit meiner Darlegungen).89

There is really no reason to say that Jaspers "deplores 'polemiciz-ing against an unnamed author,' " but nevertheless does so himself.90Jaspers' own statement on this, as translated by Ashton, is surely

unexceptionable: "Polemicizing against an unnamed author may beappropriate on issues that are impersonal and widely known; other-wise it expresses disrespect and denies the other's weight."91 It shouldbe added that when Karl Barth polemicizes against Jaspers withoutnaming him, Jaspers takes it with good grace.92

One hardly knows what can be said of the preposterous chargethat Jaspers is responsible for "definitions like those of simplicity as arefusal to simplify and of philosophizing as 'building by tearing downwhat we have built.' "93Why should anyone suppose that such state-ments were intended as definitions?94

85 PHT, p. 253.86 PHT, p. xiv.87PHT, p. 21; PH, p. xxxv.88 PHT, p. 23.89 PH, p. xxxvii.90PHT, p. xiv.91PHT, p. 30.92PGT, p. 325.93 PHT, p. xv.94 No definition is intended, of course, when one simply says, apropos of a given

procedure, "We are indeed building by tearing down what we have built." PHT, p. 34.



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548 PHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH

When Ashton retranslated the "Philosophical Autobiography"that Paul A. Schilpp and Ludwig B. Lefebre had prepared for the largevolume on Jaspers in "The Library of Living Philosophers,"95 he com-mented that he was doing over for the "general reader" an essaywhich "Professors Schilpp and Kaufmann [sic] have done for anacademic audience."96 Perhaps Philosophy too was prepared expresslyfor the "general reader." Whether or not this is so, it is to be hopedthat some thoroughly trained bilingual student of German philosophywill soon take it upon himself to retranslate both Philosophie andPhilosophische Glaube for academic philosophers. Until that occurs,or until a really first-rate translation of Von der Wahrheit appears,Jaspers, as viewed from the English-speaking countries, will remainlargely incommunicado.

C. F. WALLRAFF.UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA.

95The Philosophy of Karl Jaspers, pp. 5-94.96 Philosophy and the World, p. 193, n.

jaspers in english - failure of communication

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