Philosophical Anthropology Research Articles

The lifeworld and the world of life: the concept of relevance and its foundation in organic nature

Abstract This paper relates the concept of relevance to its biological foundations by combining Alfred Schutz’s social phenomenology and Helmuth Plessner’s theory of organic life and philosophical anthropology. Relevance interlinks human sign use with the human “lifeworld” (Husserl) as a whole. The biological foundations of relevance, in turn, interlink that lifeworld with the “world of life” that includes us among other lifeforms. I analyze human relevance as an interplay of two tendencies, termed “closedness” and “openness,” that underlies our production of “meaning” (Schutz). Relevance in this general sense involves not only the mind, but also the body of homo sapiens. To provide a unified theoretical framework, I reconstruct Plessner’s “philosophical biology.” According to Plessner, organic life consists in a tension between closedness and openness. This tension unfolds through the “levels” of plants, animals, and humans. Plessner’s analysis of humans as “excentric” animals helps explain the two tendencies that drive human relevance and distinguish our experience from that of our closest animal relatives. At the same time, Plessner traces a robust continuity between us and other lifeforms. The human “level” merely makes “explicit” certain elements (including the Cartesian distinction between “mind” and “body”) that all organisms implicitly possess.

Pygmalion in Ricoeurian Colors: Bernard Shaw, Paul Ricoeur, and the Shared Nexus between the Capable Human Being and Mutual Recognition

ABSTRACT This article interprets Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion in terms of two key notions integral to Paul Ricoeur’s philosophical anthropology—the capable human being and mutual recognition—both of which have their analogues in the perennially acclaimed play. For Shaw and Ricoeur, the world would be a much better place if people practiced mutual recognition and its entailments. It is the best remedy, they believe, for healing the festering wounds that have brought civilization to the edge of the abyss. For both, mutual recognition encompasses human rights in all its dimensions and provides a sound framework for righting past injustices through reconciliation and forgiveness.

Classical Theism, Interpersonal Relations, and the Receptivity of God

A central tenet of classical theism is that God is Pure Act. Among other things, this indicates that while God can act on creatures, he cannot be acted on by those creatures, for there is no receptivity in God. Yet this seems to imply that God cannot enter into interpersonal relationships with human persons, for such relationships are intrinsically reciprocal and therefore require activity and receptivity from all participants. Since the Christian faith is ostensibly committed to the claim that God can and does engage humans in interpersonal relationship, classical theism appears to be incompatible with Christianity. Nevertheless, in this paper I propose a Thomistic version of classical theism that avoids this apparent tension. Drawing on a Thomistic philosophical anthropology, as well as recent work on the second-person relation, I suggest that there is, in fact, receptivity in God. However, I argue that God’s receptivity is a feature of his Pure Activity, and thus the claim that God engages humans in interpersonal relationship proves to be consistent with the doctrines of classical theism.

On the Human in Human Dignity

Only the incurious and philosophically challenged doubt the significance of dignity as a central issue in human interactions. Human dignity is much debated in religion, law, moral philosophy, anthropology, psychiatry, bioethics, sociology, philosophical anthropology, psychology, communication studies, and elsewhere. It is subject to competing discourses of ontology, epistemology, axiology, and logic. It appears in intercultural and international discussions of rights, autonomy, race, ethnicity, economics, war, and peace. It is contrasted with guilt, shame, and humiliation, both ordinary and extreme. However, the dynamic roots of dignity are usually presupposed or ignored in favor of reductionist typologies and antinomies. Returning us to lived experience and with post-humanist animal studies and the medical model of psychiatry as exemplary cases of reductionism, I interpret H. Plessner’s semiotic phenomenology as a communicative philosophy of the humane in dignity.

Нужен ли философской антропологии «социогенетический поворот»?

Philosophical anthropology, which arose each time in a specific historical reality, sought to create a universal image of man, calling this process the revelation of his essence. This problem was solved by Russian philosophy, which developed the Orthodox Christian tradition within certain historical boundaries. Modern philosophy, solving this problem, cannot ignore the basic philosophical and anthropological ideas of different civilizations, primarily Eastern, Western and Russian philosophy. The space for their comparison and synthesis can be the semantic conceptual field of sociogenesis, which opens up a universal approach to the formation of a human being as a global cultural and biological species. The sociogenetic approach reveals the opportunity to compare two main essential models of man, which are represented by the version of the self-sufficient individual, which developed in the European Enlightenment, and the version of the conciliar (communal) man, the discussion of which began in Russian philosophy of the 19th century. In the context of sociogenesis, the basis for distinguishing anthropological versions is the opposition of individualistic and communal (conciliar) principles of behavior. A specifi c synthesis of these principles in one or another cultural-historical model appears as a solution to the contradiction between the individual and species model of behavior within the cultural-biological species “human being”. In the natural world, the coordination of individual and species behavior is resolved through the genetic inheritance of species behavior, eliminating the conflict between species and individual. The sociogenetic evolution of a human being has posed the task of searching for species-specifi c universal principles of behavior, which has complicated the solution of the problem of harmonizing species and individual behavior. The complexity of the situation is that human behavior is directed by cultural programs in the context of a sociogenetic search for a species program capable of ensuring the global consolidation of the human species. In this context, philosophical anthropology requires a sociogenetic support, and the appeal to it can be called the “sociogenetic turn” in philosophical anthropology.

Repensar teleológicamente la persona: un estudio desde la filosofía de Robert Spaemann

The article aims to explain Robert Spaemann's concept of the person, a concept that cannot be separated from the teleological conception of nature. Thanks to teleology, the dualism in which philosophical anthropology had been stuck since Modernity will be overcome: if nature is teleological, there is continuity between nature and reason and not opposition, as the moderns thought. In this sense, human reason allows the transcendence of nature by recognizing existences outside of itself, which has traditionally been called benevolent love. This is a fundamental phenomenon that allows us to understand the value of the person and the specificity of personal relationships. On the other hand, based on the assumption that person is a normative term and, therefore, not descriptive, Spaemann extends personal status to every man. He thus opposes thinkers who reduce personality to those who manifest rationality and consciousness. From this point of view raised here, the value of the person is infinitely magnified and we can speak of dignity.

The entangled human being – a new materialist approach to anthropology of technology

AbstractTechnological advancements raise anthropological questions: How do humans differ from technology? Which human capabilities are unique? Is it possible for robots to exhibit consciousness or intelligence, capacities once taken to be exclusively human? Despite the evident need for an anthropological lens in both societal and research contexts, the philosophical anthropology of technology has not been established as a set discipline with a defined set of theories, especially concerning emerging technologies. In this paper, I will utilize a New Materialist approach, focusing particularly on the theories of Donna Haraway and Karen Barad, to explore their potential for an anthropology of technology. I aim to develop a techno-anthropological approach that is informed and enriched by New Materialism. This approach is characterized by its relational perspective, a dynamic and open conception of the human being, attention to diversity and the dynamics of power in knowledge production and ontology, and an emphasis on the non-human. I aim to outline an anthropology of technology centered on New Materialism, wherein the focus, paradoxically, is not exclusively on humans but equally on non-human entities and the entanglement with the non-human. As will become clear, the way we understand humans and their relationship with technology is fundamental for our concepts and theories in ethics of technology.

Martin Buber's Philosophical Anthropology and Philosophy of Dialogue (First of Two Parts)

Martin Buber's Philosophical Anthropology and Philosophy of Dialogue (First of Two Parts)

Актуальные проблемы исследования философии Н.Н. Страхова (материалы «круглого стола»)

In 2023, we celebrated 195 years since the birth of the Russian philosopher, lite­rary critic, publicist, and translator Nikolay Nikolayevich Strakhov (1828–1896). As part of the international scientific conference “XII Readings in Memory of N.N. Strakhov. The Legacy of N.N. Strakhov in Interdisciplinary Contexts: Philosophy, Anthropology, Science” (Herzen State Pedagogical University of Rus­sia, National Research University “BelSU”, October 26 – November 1, 2023), initiated by the participants of the project supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant No. 23-28-01844 “Archive of the N.N. Strakhov Era: Exi­stential Contexts and Interdisciplinary Intersections”, a round table discussion on “Current Problems of Contemporary Strakhov Studies” was held. This event was dedicated to the memory of the writer, translator, and researcher of N.N. Strakhov’s works and his milieu, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sci­ences N.P. Ilyin (1947–2023), and the renowned philologist, specialist in the study and publication of the works of V.V. Rozanov and his era, Doctor of Philological Sciences A.N. Nikolyukin (1928–2023). The participants in the discussion, lead­ing specialists in the history of Russian philosophy, reflected on the signifi­cance of the philosophical and scientific-humanitarian research and publications of N.P. Ilyin and A.N. Nikolyukin, and outlined future directions for studying N.N. Strakhov’s works in the context of contemporary problems of epistemology and the methodology of science, the history of philosophy and cultural philoso­phy, philosophical anthropology, and pedagogy

The Püsterich of Sondershausen: An Explosive Bronze Object between Art, Science and Questions of Human Nature in the 13th Century

Preserved in the Castle Museum at Sondershausen in central Germany is a bronze taking the form of a rotund, kneeling man. The object, nearly 22.5 inches tall and cast in a single piece, is known today as the ‘Püsterich’. Since its archaeological discovery in the 1540s, it has proven to be a subject of intellectual debate: numerous authors have sought to understand either its iconography or, on the basis of its hollow shape and the two openings in its head, its function. The resulting studies have been surprisingly varied in their claims. With a method of approach rooted in ‘object studies’, this article explores both of the aforementioned aspects as well as form-function relations. Starting with a basic art-historical analysis of the bronze—thus far lacking in the scholarship—the article recognizes the work as having been produced in Hildesheim between c. 1220 and 1250, a context in which it can be related closely to the philosophical concerns of the prominent theologian Albertus Magnus. In its function as a ‘sufflator’ (hearth-blower) and its depiction of a ‘pygmeus’, the ‘Püsterich’, along with seven other related figures, can be understood as a ‘Wissensobjekt’, an object or bearer of knowledge. With and through them, viewers/users negotiated complex problems about the nature of living beings; specifically, the bronze thematized the question of what distinguished human beings from animals: in Albertus’s thought, the mastering of science and art. This new understanding of the ‘Püsterich’ allows us to recognize its special position at the origins of ‘philosophical anthropology’ and the history of science.

Love and recognition: towards on the question of the influence of erotosophy by Vl. Solovyov on the anthropology of A. Kozhev

The creativity of Vladimir Solovyov, more specifically his work “The Meaning of Love”, is considered as one of the origins of Alexander Kozhev’s philosophical anthropology. Attention is drawn to the fact that Kozhev addressed this Solovyov text not only in his dissertation “The Religious Philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov” (1926), but also in his article “The Religious Metaphysics of Vladimir Solovyov” (1934‒1935), that is, at the time of his lecture course, later called “Introduction to the Reading of Hegel”. The general characterization of Solovyov’s philosophy of love and its comparison with Kozhev’s doctrine of man and concept of history are given. As a result of comparative analysis of both philosopher’s views, four conceptual moments present in both Solovyov’s erotosophy and Kozhev’s philosophical anthropology are revealed. Attention is drawn to the fact that Solovyov’s “love” and Kozhev’s “desire for recognition” are related by the fact that they are both removed from the material, natural order. It is noted that both of these concepts can function only in the presence of the figure of the other, whose absolute individuality they produce. It is emphasized that both “desire for recognition” and “love” presuppose reciprocity and universality (“universal recognition” / “sisygic unity”). It is fixed that their full realization is possible only after the end of the historical process. At the same time, it is argued that it is impossible to identify Kozhev’s “desire for recognition” and Solovyov’s “love”, since in Kozhev’s texts, in addition to passages bringing love closer to recognition, there is also a consistent philosophical critique of love (its lack of “Action”, risk, struggle, universality). In conclusion, we identify four main differences between Kozhev’s anthropology and Solovyov’s erotosophy (individualism, antagonism, atheism, sexual indifference) and hypothesize that Kozhev combines both Hegelian and Solovievian components in the “desire for recognition”, which is why he brings this notion closer to love and then draws strict distinctions.

La pensée existentielle de Kierkegaard et la philosophie de Charles De Koninck: contexte et résonances

Abstract So far, the philosopher Charles De Koninck (1906 – 1965) has most commonly been considered as a proponent of the philosophy of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. However, his contact with modern and contemporary philosophy also contributed to shape his thought. This paper presents his reception of Kierkegaard’s philosophy by first analyzing the textual evidence in his works, indicating a presence of Kierkegaard in his writings. This is followed by a discussion of the similarities between their respective definitions of philosophy and their common views on philosophical anthropology, thus indicating a correspondence between the Dane and De Koninck’s respective philosophies.

Black bodies in phenomenological bioethics: cultural othering, ‘Corporeal Uncanny’ and ethical quandaries of black nurses in Take My Hand and Small Great Things

The aims of the present article are twofold. First, it attempts to theorise the thematic and ontological intersection between phenomenological and black bioethics and proposes ‘Ontic-Black Bioethics’, a neologism to...

Idea of Man by Max Sheler and Modern World

The paper is dedicated to the critical reconstruction of the project of philosophical anthropology drafted by German philosopher Max Sheler at the beginning of XX century in his article “On the Idea of Man” (“Zur Idee des Menschen”). The author tries also to show the contemporary relevance of the main notions and ideas of the anthropological conception which is drafted in this article. From the very title of the article, it becomes clear that Max Sheler based his philosophical anthropology on the phenomenological methodology. According to this methodological approach, we should grasp the idea of man in the act of ideation, which is a result of phenomenological reduction. In accordance to the phenomenological critique of the psychologism, Sheler shows that we cannot find the peculiar idea of man in the natural reality, since from this point of view a man is just an animal among other animals. Being human means overcoming yourself every movement of your existence. The “self-transcendence” is the main feature of the human being. One of the main instrument of the self-transcendence is a human language that gives world a chance to articulate itself. The human self-transcendence can lead to development and creation, but at the same time, it can lead to degradation and destruction. In the modern world, we can find many examples of the both processes.

Transgenerational Frontiers: The Capabilities Approach And the New Challenge of Justice

ABSTRACT The aim of the paper is to confront some challenges raised by intergenerational justice from the perspective of Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach. After having sketched her account, the essay deals with some objections to it from an environmental perspective, arguing that, contrary to some critics, it can be a valuable basis for reflecting on our duties towards future generations. More precisely, I focus on how the CA provides promising insights to address two central problems of intergenerational ethics: 1) the so-called ‘circumstances of justice;’ 2) the problem of the asymmetry between present and future generations. In both cases, I argue that the philosophical anthropology underlying the CA is better suited than the contractualist one to include future generations into the realm of justice and ground our motivation to care for them. After underlining the potential of the CA, in the concluding remarks I will underline a potential flaw of this theory, i.e. the lack of guidance when it comes to the trade-offs between our rights and well-being and those of the unborn.

N.A. Berdyaev: strokes to the portrait of a social philosopher

The article examines the views of N. A. Berdyaev. The author relies on the publications of the historian of Russian sociology V.V. Sapov, problemicizing on nature of thinking and style of Berdyaev’s philosophizing, of how sociological is his methodology, as well as the assessment of his so-called “apophatic sociology”. The author shows that Berdyaev’s social philosophy is based on the doctrine of man (philosophical anthropology), the core of which is religious and philosophical concept of personality (personalism). Parallels are drawn with the views of V.l. Solovyov, S. N. Bulgakov, S. L. Frank, M. Scheler. The ideological and value meaning of Berdyaev’s “Christian sociology” is shown to be based on the ideal of “personalistic socialism”, which he considered “true communism”, and is crowned by eschatology, calling for an “active understanding of the apocalypse”. In conclusion, the author emphasizes the relevance of Berdyaev’s views for our time – the epoch of the dominance of digital techniques, social technologies, and a decline of human spiritual potential.

Anthropological Dimension of Wartime Ecocide: Ecofeminist Methodological Assessments

Purpose. The authors aim to disclose the anthropological dimension of ecocide during and after Russia’s war against Ukraine, relying on the multidisciplinary practices and intellectual production of ecofeminist women thinkers, including philosophers, sociologists, historians, psychologists, and others. The theoretical basis methodological approaches in philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, analytical philosophy, communicative philosophy, existentialism, ethics of justice, and ethics of care determine the study’s theoretical basis. Originality. For the first time, a systematic analysis of the anthropological dimension of ecocide has been carried out based on ecofeminist methodology. The specifics of the Ukrainian resistance to ecocide were revealed as part of a single struggle – an anti-imperial and ecological struggle for independence and prosperity. It is emphasized that during the war, the opposition to ecocide is a component of the fight for national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, and therefore, the ideas of pacifism in this period are subordinated to this primary goal. After the war, preventing threats of ecocide should become an integral part of the struggle for stable peace and prosperity. Ecofeminist pacifist perspectives should be a priority among the most essential goals for that period. Conclusions. Ecofeminist methodological assessments offer valuable insights into the anthropological dimension of ecocide in wartime and post-war contexts, highlighting the complex interplay between gender, violence, and environmental destruction. By focusing on the experiences and perspectives of women and marginalized communities, ecofeminist analyses contribute to a more holistic understanding of ecocide and its impacts on both human populations and ecosystems.

Man in the Space of Freedom and Resentment: Symbolic Correlation of Existentials

Purpose. The article aims to problematize the forms of correlation between the fundamental category of freedom and the phenomenon of resentment in the context of the formation of ethical discourse, as well as to consider the symbolic mechanisms of the collective imagination in the formation of a picture of the human world. Theoretical basis. The study uses the method of historical and philosophical analysis and methods of the humanities – hermeneutics and phenomenology. Originality. An attempt is made to comprehend the correlation between freedom as a category of philosophical anthropology and practical philosophy and the phenomenon of resentment. Conclusions. The ethical category of freedom, explicitly or implicitly, significantly shapes the content of the process of choice and social action by a person, which can be manifested in discursive practices and narratives of ideologies, public opinion and collective imagination. Symbolic mechanisms of human consciousness record the paradoxical correlation and at the same time the antithesis of reality reception and meaning generation between rational awareness and existential experience, humanization and appropriation of freedom and emotional-affective, reactive attitude of a person to narratives, motives, symbols and images of resentment. At the same time, freedom can presuppose the conscious content of resentment, while resentment deforms the concept of freedom into arbitrariness or violence, appealing not only to the archaic values of tribalism, but also to the rational basis of individual freedom of the individual, on which the philosophical tradition of the West is based. The resentful forms of thinking and emotional reception of reality function as symbolic constructions, that is, they can have a wide and internally contradictory field of interpretations. Western philosophical thought has a significant potential to reinterpret the challenges of the phenomenon of resentment based on the tradition of ontotheology and ethics of discourse due to the specific rationalism of the vision of the philosophy of freedom.

Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi’s Philosophy of Education: Human-Centred Dimension

Purpose. The basis of the presented study is a methodological and human-centred analysis of the philosophy of education of the outstanding Ukrainian educator Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi as a relevant anthropological-intellectual strategy for understanding and comprehending the educational process in the context of civilisation challenges. This implies a sequential solution to the following tasks: 1) to review the conceptual content and human-centred load of Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi’s pedagogical position in the discourses of philosophical anthropology and social philosophy; 2) to analyse the theoretical knowledge of the anthropo-existential concept of the outstanding teacher in the context of the transformation of Ukrainian education; 3) to determine the main parameters of the cognitive field of Sukhomlynskyi’s philosophy of education in the development of values of patriotic education of young people. Theoretical basis. The dynamic process of Ukraine’s unfolding struggle for the preservation of its nation and territorial integrity brings Sukhomlynskyi’s philosophy of education to a new level of understanding of human life and society. The human-centred dimension in interaction with the philosophy of education allows us to define Sukhomlynskyi’s pedagogical concept in the fullness of its metaphilosophical, existential and axiological content. The relevance of the problem under study is due to the crisis of values in the situation of civilizational transformations, which, as a result of information and digital technologies, have a cumulative impact on all spheres of people’s life and their attitude to the world. In the process of implementing the educational ideas of the Ukrainian teacher, the development and transformation of the individual’s self-awareness takes place in accordance with the intellectual challenges of the modern socio-cultural environment. Originality. It is substantiated that the philosophy of education of Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi largely determines the strategy for the transformation of Ukrainian education both in the context of digitalisation of the educational space and in the situation of a full-scale war against Russian aggression, which opens up new prospects for the implementation of identity dimensions in interaction with a qualitatively different level of national subjectivity. Conclusions. The approval of the conceptual provisions of Sukhomlynskyi’s philosophy of education gives rise to a new type and method of paradigm of thinking and cognition in the implementation of strategies for the transformation of modern education, which determine the qualitative theory of the educational process in the context of human-centrism. It is characterized by the level of modern philosophical reflections, which allows preserving and at the same time changing the system of education and upbringing of the young generation in the context of universal values. On this basis, the philosophy of education of the prominent Ukrainian educator appears as a way of renewing all aspects of human life, which deconstructs itself in the situation of a human-centric dimension.

Embodied Existence and the Future of Humanity: A Reception of Thomas Fuchs’s Philosophical Anthropology Defense

Embodied Existence and the Future of Humanity: A Reception of Thomas Fuchs’s Philosophical Anthropology Defense