Karl Jaspers'in Felsefi Düşüncesinde Sorumluluk Anlayışı

Abstract

The first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of responsibility is some duties determined by social norms, general moral and legal rules related to what people do and to the consequences of these deeds. However, for something to be called responsibility, it does not have to arise from an action. Responsibility, no wonder, can arise also from inaction. Moreover, considering the concept of responsibility only in the social and political context is a major obstacle to examining the concept in-depth and completely. In this respect, the concept of responsibility is both a dead end and a founding element even today.

The twentieth-century had been an era in which the concept of responsibility with two great world wars and numerous crimes against humanity was examined and discussed in depth by thinkers. Not only a political but also an existential conclusion was drawn from these discussions. Karl Jaspers, one of the first names that come to mind when the twentieth century existential philosophy is mentioned, is also an important philosopher who discussed the concept of responsibility from the perspectives of psychology, philosophy and politics in his works throughout his life. Examining the concept in the context of existential and political philosophy, Jaspers contextualized it with other important and basic concepts of his philosophy such as guilt (Schuld), boundary situation (Grenzsituation), truth (Wahrheit), reason (Vernunft), freedom (Freiheit) and communication (Kommunikation).

The main problem and thesis of this scrutiny is to reveal the connection between the concept of guilt, which is a boundary situation in Jaspers' existential philosophy, with the concept of responsibility in his political philosophy, and to reveal the idea of responsibility in the whole of his philosophy. When it comes to Jaspers' notion of responsibility, what comes to mind is his view of political responsibility. However, in our opinion, the understanding of responsibility in his philosophy is much more than that. The goals of our effort here are: to declare the understanding of responsibility in Jaspers' philosophical thought as completely as possible by naming and examining the understanding of responsibility in the existential philosophy as "existential responsibility" and the understanding of responsibility in the philosophy of mind as "decision responsibility"; to establish the guilt – responsibility relationship; to infer that his view of responsibility can generate solutions to contemporary problems (such as environmental problems).