KARL JASPERS: BASES OF THE SCIENTIFIC ORIENTATION TO LIVE. A DIALOGUE WITH KANT

Abstract

This study exams, according to Karl Jaspers, how science can serve as an orientation to live. The scientific knowledge does not reach the being in itself, already said by Kant, it has limits to reach and preview the function of the nucleus of the matter, as taught by the contemporary Physics. On the other hand, the reason also finds a limit on the personal freedom, which makes the human sciences the need to live together with this limitation. Thus, an orientation to live that needs a complete image of the world, can only come from the Philosophy, but that does not mean that the Science is not part of this process and does not offer orientation elements.  Science offers a base and feeds the philosophies of each time. There is not a way to reach on the philosophy orientation without the knowledge which science offers to each generation, when this one respects the limits of the reason to see the world. This is the Jaspers’s way to redo the dialogue with Kant and the Illuminism, showing the better and the worst on the movement.