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Abstract

A critical analysis of Jaspers’ theory of being isgiven in the present paper. Above all, those aspects of Jaspers’ ontological project are dealt with, in which under the structure of subjectobject a more original level of being is looked for, an „original source“ of being, from which subject and object would rise as forms or kinds of „the surrounding“ (Weisen des Umgreifenden). However, a deeper analysis of this notion reveals its antinomic character and extrarational origin of thought. Here the source of another antinomies should be looked for, which so expressively mark not only Jaspers’ theory of being but also his way of philosophical reasoning in general. On the one hand, „existence“ and „transcendence“ are absolute non-objects, i. e., they are inaccessible to objective knowledge. On the other hand, everything that has the character of objectivity is, in its essential determination, apprehensible only in dependence upon existence. However, existence itselfis unknowable, it is beyond the framework of the possibilities of an objective reasoning, it is beyond the area of philosophy. Therefore, its „illumination“ cannot be more than a call that the others should seek for themselves, pay attention to the inner world of their existence and transcendence. Philosophy inevitably comes to an end here and room is being open up to speculations which reveal, in Jaspers, mystical Plotinian-Judaistic influences.