Damon asked:

What did Jaspers mean by ciphers?

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He meant that everything meaning-bearing, language in its broadest conception — everything that
speaks through us and because of us — is symbolic. To get this point you need to realize the a priori
distinction Jaspers makes between whatsomething is and thatit is. Language functions in the normal
way when referring to what something is (quidditas). But this leaves out the problem of its being, its
beingness (the actus essendior Existenz). Existenz comprehends all that is. Existenz is the
transcendent horizon of phenomena, against which as well as in which things live and move and are
what they are. Things (entities and phenomena) are "ciphers" of this Existenz, which we cannot talk
about directly, in the manner that we can say what a thing is directly, clearly and coherently.
Whatness presupposes a subject-object dichotomy, but thatness transcends the subject-object
dichotomy and provides the horizon in which it can occur, its pre-condition. By talking of "ciphers"
Jaspers is pointing back to a whole dimension of language that discursive thinking, logic and scientific
thinking in particular forget. I hope this helps.

Matthew Del Nevo

www.sicetnon.com

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