Philosophical Faith, according to Karl Jaspers, provides each person a way of understanding the world and their place in it. Unlike religious belief, there is no need for a special revelation from a prophetic figure nor any required dogma to express universal truths. Rather, philosophical faith stands on the basis of critical reflection upon my own experience of the lifeworld. Such a faith or belief (German Glaube) encourages openness to the possibility of Transcendence without requiring the dogmas, liturgies, and/or a priestly class.

Rather than being a total substitute for religion, philosophical faith can complement most sacred traditions. Jaspers thought that religious communities, for all of their negative history, foster a sense of belonging along with a support network for comfort through the darkest hours and guidance through confusing situations. Nonetheless, the negative history of dogmatic fanaticism, restrictive legalism, and violent oppression associated with certain religious elements remain.

Where such dehumanizing forces marginalize “non-believers,” philosophical faith provides a path to open-ended communication from within genuine hospitality. I do not require of myself or of anyone else blind belief in that which cannot be understood by contemplating experience. This allows me and anyone else engaging philosophical faith to build from a belief that each person partakes of something greater than mere individual survival. Each singular person as free-possibility can achieve great things by heeding the vocation of humanization.

By embracing the burden of my humanity–that I am free and therefore responsible for my actions–Jaspers’ concept of philosophical faith inspires me to discover my ownmost meaning in life.

In comparison to all that is mediated by the understanding, philosophic faith is immediate:

“…If faith is neither solely content [object] nor solely an act of the subject, but is rooted in the vehicle [of] phenomenality, then it [faith] should be conceIved only in conjunction with that whIch is neither subject nor object but both In one, with that whIch manifests itself in the dualIty of subject and object. 

“We call the beIng that is neither only subject nor only object, that is rather on both sides of the subject-object split: das Umgreifende, the Comprehensive [the Encompassing]. Although It cannot be an adequate object, it is of this, and with this in mInd, that we speak when we phIlosophIze…

“…Philosophical faith… looks on all formulated and written philosophy only as preparation or recollection, only as inspiration or confirmation. Hence no meaningful philosophy can be a self-contained conceptual system. The conceptual structure is never more than half, and attains to truth only if, in addition to being conceived, it is embodied In the thinker’s own historical existence…” 

Karl Jaspers, The Perennial Scope of Philosophy. Trans. Ralph Mannheim London: Routledge, 1950, 14-15.