Abstract
The gradual origin of living species and man seems to be a well documented historical fact. The current data from paleoanthropology shows a progressive anatomical and cultural evolution from early hominids to Homo sapiens. There seems to be a general agreement about symbolic capacities as a threshold between Homo sapiens and its predecessors. Hans Jonas and Jacques Maritain concerned themselves with the philosophical problems of evolution and the origin of man. The first author recognized in human beings an ontological level superior to other animals, whose empirical expression is the use of complex tools, image production and burial. Jacques Maritain, for his part, proposes the existence of three «heightening causalities» which would explain the origin of human beings: a general perfectioning cause for the cosmos, a specific uplifting cause for hominid lineage, and one third specific causation for the first man, that would continue acting in each new generation. Interdisciplinary collaboration is now essential to address these matters, which project a light on our own origins and expands the understanding of our species.
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