Jaspers Gesamtausgabe Funded

Here, over on the KJSNA page, there is news of a massive advance in recognition of the significance of Karl Jaspers' legacy: a 50+ volume annotated critical edition of his Collected Works is to be produced in Germany from 2012-2030.

'A major step in Jaspers scholarship was announced in Germany on November 8, 2011. The Joint Science Conference (a partnership between the Federal Government of Germany and the heads of government of the Länder) has approved nine major research projects with a total funding of 54.4 million Euros. One of these projects recognizes the importance of Karl Jaspers with funding of an annotated critical edition of Karl Jaspers’ Collected Works.

Starting in 2012, the timetable for this project is 18 years and includes four full-time positions for executive editors to oversee the production of more than 50 volumes. The headquarters for this project is located at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences directed by professors Thomas Fuchs (psychiatry) and Jens Halfwassen (philosophy), in cooperation with Dr. Hans Saner (Basel) and professors Anton Hügli (Basel), Kurt Salamun (Graz), and Reinhard Schulz (Oldenburg). The editorial focus of the Heidelberg group will centre on Jaspers’ clinical and philosophical writings, while the Oldenburg group in conjunction with the Hannah-Arendt-Center will address Jaspers’ political writings.’   

Interestingly, this division of labour broadly mirrors Thornhill's division of his treatment of Jaspers' thinking: early works and then 'Republican existence'.

The German press announcement comments that 'Karl Jaspers gehört neben Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger und Hans-Georg Gadamer zu den prägenden deutschen Philosophen des 20. Jahrhunderts.' Jaspers, Husserl, Heidegger and Gadamer belong together as the defining German philosophers of the twentieth century.