A limit situation () is any of certain situations in which a human being is said to have experiences that differ from those arising from ordinary situations.Richardson and Bowden (1993), p334
The concept was developed by Karl Jaspers, who considered fright, guilt, finality and suffering as some of the key limit situations arising in everyday life.T, Fuchs ed, Karl Jasper's Philosophy and Psychopathology (2013) p.. 48
Encounters James G. Hart wrote that encounters with limit situations unsettle individuals, break them out of their inauthentic identifications, remove them from the social bond, and force them to come alive and find new ways of communicating.J. Hart, Who One Is (2009) p. 11-3 and p. 309 They can be compared to the similarly generative experience of the sense of bewilderment in Zen.P. Wolfe, Laden Choirs (2015) p. 11 Hans-Georg Gadamer believed the limit situation to provide a revelatory encounter with the otherM. Portocarrera et al eds., Hermeneutic Rationality (2012) p. 147 and that facing the anxiety arising from the foreknowledge of death can likewise be a growth opportunity arising from a limit situation.I. Tammmelo, Justice and Doubt (2013) p. 386
Psychoanalytic frame Psychoanalysis can be seen as a structured limit situation,G. Gutting ed., The Cambridge Companion to Foucault (CUP 2007) p. 325 the psychoanalytic framework in particular providing an experience of finality and limits that can empower growth.D. Smith, Hidden Conversations (1991) p. 189
Third world politics In his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire adapted the existential notion of limit situationsPaulo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) p. 71 (Penguin Books, 1972) to the Third World,Paulo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) p. 75 (Penguin Books, 1972) seeing the constraints of underdevelopment as a limit situation on humanity,R. Rivera, A Study of Liberation Discourse (2004) p. 32 but also as a possible frontier point for increasing (in overcoming) one's human stature.J. Irwin, Paulo Freire's Philosophy of Education (2012) Limit-situation is a fundamental concept in critical pedagogy, originally formulated by Paulo Freire, which describes the existential and social circumstances that impede, bar, or hinder an individual's pursuit of their "ontological vocation" to be "more fully human". These situations act as restricting dimensions that limit people's cognitive, social, and emotional development. Freirean-Based Critical Pedagogy: The Challenges of Limit-Situations and Critical Transitivity
See also
References
Bibliography Richardson A. & Bowden J. (1993) The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology London; Westminster John Knox Press