As with Kierkegaard , Nietzsche , and Sartre , we find that Jaspers emphasizes the importance of decision making a freedom in defining the individual. Total freedom for Jaspers translates into the same infinite possibility to redefine the self Sartre would describe in his responses to psychoanalysis. There are limits, according to Jaspers, to our freedom. Death stands apart from other boundaries as it is both the source of dread and the reason many choose to experience pleasures. Without death, there might not be a reason to search for pleasure.
Jaspers suggests social interactions offer guidelines that individuals either adopt or reject.
In other words, Existenz is a solitary state derived from the values of society. Unless we know what others think and expect of us, we cannot decide who we are or want to be. Jaspers, therefore, presents a view in which all people depend upon society for self-definition, even if the act of definition is a rejection of society's values. No one is truly apart from society. Leaps of Faith Karl Jaspers was a man of faith, but not a traditional Christian.