Karl Jaspers (February 23,1883 to February 26, 1969) was a giant of 20th century philosophical thought. He has been labeled an existentialist thinker but that use reveals an ignorance of his writings. He clearly says that when he first used the term existentialist, there were no others using the term, and he was surprised after the war ended, to find a group using his terminology and whom he felt no kinship with. One has to assume those he references have not done the honorable thing and been careful to distinguish themselves from someone who clearly does not want to be assoicated with them.
Jaspers, after becoming a psychiatrist, decided to became a philosopher. Partly because he realized man and world were part of each other and so understandable. Understandable to some extent, the trick being to keep alive that edge of the unknown. We read for instance
Man can be everything, God, angel, beast, lion, or bear, but always in a human way. .... God and microcosm, the two hang together in man's mind: "The mind sees all things in itself as in a mirror. Man sees all things as made like him.."
Thus a glimpse of the limits and marvel of human knowledge, as included by Jaspers in
The Great Philosophers: The original thinkers: Anaximander, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plotinus, Anselm, Nicholas of Cusa, Spinoza, Lao-Tzu, Nagarjuna (1962)
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