A Study On Jaspers’ Thought Of Philosophy Of Science

Jaspers, one of the founders of Existential Philosophy, is a German philosopher in the20th century. Compared with the thoughts from philosophers of science——Moritz Schlick, Ernst Mach, Thomas Samuel Kuhn, Hans Reichenbach, the philosophy of science from Jaspers belongs to the broader philosophy of science. In terms of the traditional philosophy of science from Vienna School, Broader philosophy of science combines wider extension and deeper connotation that helps current philosophy of science out of the bog of self-imprisonment and pursues the reflection in a broader vision, and probably develops a valuable resource to solve the theoretical problems of current researches of philosophy of science. The study of Jaspers’ philosophy of science helps not only bridging a gap that pays more attention to study of "traditional philosophy of science" and ignoring academic field, but also a kind of beneficial supplement for Jaspers’philosophical study which is less fruitful and demonstrating the feature of single topic in China.Jaspers’existential philosophy is not a new philosophy, but a part of the philosophy that is forgotten by modern philosophy, which focuses on scientific philosophy-oriented proposition all the time. Traditional philosophy regards some certain established principle as the universally effective principle, also known as the total knowledge, whereas philosophers of science oppose this assertion. It also conflicts with the positivists, who requests scientific philosophy. Therefore, Jaspers’ philosophy of science is considered as his existential philosophy founded on the premise of wakening of the awareness of self-forgetting. From the view of broader philosophy of science, the paper conducts the study of Jaspers’ thought of philosophy of science from two perspectives:thought relation between science and philosophy; thought relation between science and existence of man. Basing on this, Jaspers’ philosophy of science will be posited and the features, significance and limitation will be discussed.After taking a wide view for Jaspers’ philosophy of science, the paper analyzes and clarifies the differences between science and philosophy mainly from nine perspectives. Jasper acknowledges science and admits it to be the basis and tool of philosophy whereas emphasizing the irreplaceable feature of philosophy of "strong humanism". He maintains that philosophy manifests its power in science demarcation with the "world orientation" and retrieves itself in self-forgetting. On this basis, the paper points out that Jaspers unites science and philosophy by truth, takes encompassing as the source of truth and divides truth into the truth of being there, the truth of consciousness-in-general, the truth of spirit/mind and the truth of existence, thereby to break through the single and narrow concept of truth. In face of exception and authority, the process to pursue the truth is conducted by reason. By pointing out the relationship between modern science and human existence, as a historical philosopher, Jaspers splits human’s understandings of science into three stages based on the different historical stages:science before science, consciousness of rational knowledge and modern science. Axial period was a Byzantium, the West and Islam-centered period built on the foundation of ancient civilization. It was a period in which human could accomplish the genuine and boundless communication and show their human potential. But modern time is in the opposite of that period. The distortion of modern science is the essential reason why spirit of the time is in deep waters. Jaspers comes up with two parallel solutions to relieve spirit of the time out of dilemma:by establishing the idea of university based on pure science and by living a philosophical life based on pure philosophy.After all, the paper summarizes the features of his generalized scientific system and philosophy of science which affirms metaphysic and emphasizes rationality of philosophy, by comparing his thought of philosophy of science with other traditional thoughts of scientific science. And then the internal comparison of the so-called "second philosophy of science" comes to the conclusion that Jaspers’ thought of philosophy of science is the thought to philosophical faith. In the end, the paper discusses and evaluates Jaspers’thought of philosophy of science under the history of scientific philosophy, and then indicates its significance and limitation.On the whole, with the background of "scientific philosophy", Jaspers sticks to the field of philosophy. His philosophy of science——not deserting philosophy for the sake of science, vice versa——opens the new perspective of traditional philosophy of science, providing the new way of the development of philosophy of science and enriching the content of broader philosophy of science.