Philosophical anthropology, sometimes called anthropological philosophy, is a discipline within philosophy that inquires into the essence of human nature, drawing on metaphysics and phenomenology to ask what most fundamentally distinguishes human beings as a kind of being. Max Scheler founded it as an independent discipline in the 1920s, defining the human being not as a rational animal, the traditional view since Aristotle, but essentially as a loving being; Helmuth Plessner and Arnold Gehlen developed the field alongside him, and Ernst Cassirer, its most influential figure from the 1940s through the 1960s, introduced the idea of the human being as a symbolic animal. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Central QuestionSourced to the subject's own accountWhat most fundamentally distinguishes human beings as a kind of being, and how should the relationship between body and soul, reason and feeling, be understood? 1 Key DebateSourced to the subject's own accountWhether human beings are most fundamentally defined as rational animals, the traditional Aristotelian view, or, as Max Scheler proposed, as essentially loving beings. 1 Key DebateSourced to the subject's own accountWhether the human being is most fundamentally a dualistic composite of two separate substances, a soul housed in a mortal body, the view Plato held, or an irreducible hylomorphic unity in which the body is matter and the soul its immanent form, the view Aristotle held; the disagreement over how body and soul relate runs from these ancient sources through the twentieth century founders of the discipline itself. 1 Connections
Associated With
Kant's Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, and his recurring question "What is man?" as the horizon of his three Critiques, mark the field's acknowledged starting point.
Heidegger's Being and Time and his 1929 Davos disputation with Ernst Cassirer over the nature of the human being are among the field's most cited touchstones.
Sources
1. Philosophical Anthropology (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section
Philosophical anthropology, sometimes called anthropological philosophy, is a discipline within philosophy that inquires into the essence of human nature.
Max Scheler discussion
Scheler defined the human being not so much as a "rational animal" (as has traditionally been the case since Aristotle) but essentially as a "loving being".
History section, Plato and Aristotle discussion
Therefore Plato introduced an irreducible mind-body dualism.
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