Philosophical Anthropology

It is hardly possible to accurately determine the time of the emergence of philosophical anthropology as a separate philosophical discipline. The philosophers of Ancient Greece, India, and China tried to solve the problem of man, one way or another. Philosophical anthropology is the science of the essence of man, his relation to nature and society, to himself, to other people, about his origin, about the basic laws of his being.

The work of K. Helvetius "On Man" or "Anthropology" by I. Kant is already scientific research devoted to the problem of man. In the 20th century, philosophy is trying to solve a difficult task: to develop a single systematized human theory. I. Kant believed that the philosophy that answers the four main questions (what can I know, what should I do, what can I hope for, what is man?), The first three questions should be reduced to the fourth, and all existing sciences - To anthropology. According to I. Kant, philosophical anthropology is a fundamental science, but it becomes to her only when a person begins to think about who he is, where he came from, where he goes and how he differs from animals, and other issues.

What is the subject of this science? What issues does she investigate now, and will continue to study? The subject of philosophical anthropology: the essence of man, his origin, typology, physiological and spiritual components of man, the system of human relations (to society, to the Other, nature, culture, etc.), the totality of phenomena of human existence (labor, creativity, death, game , Love, etc.)

M. Scheler wrote that in our epoch, for the first time in ten thousand years, a man's problem manifested itself-he does not know who he is, but he knows that he does not know this. The scientific works of M. Buber, M. Scheler, A. Gehlen, H. Plesner in philosophy served the appearance of the theme of "anthropological turning". More and more scientists are connected to anthropological problems and, as a result, two directions appear: on the one hand, some scientists try to connect all scientific knowledge and everything to the person, and on the other, there are attempts to overcome anthropology, as they say, "anthropological dream", "anthropological Madness "and come to knowledge of objective, genuine being, an ontology free from man.

Scientists have been leading this scientific dispute for several years already, and the discussion is not expected to be completed in the near future. As a consequence, philosophical anthropology All the time has to invent something, proving, for example, that without an anthropological justification, all other concepts lose their inner logic and meaning. So, in physics and synergetics appears the so-called anthropic principle, proving that the universe should have properties that allow the development of a reasonable life, that is, in this case, a person.

Philosophical anthropology has recently begun to claim to take the position of a new fundamental science about man, and not just to be a section within the framework of philosophical science. With the purpose of substantiating this approach, she constantly makes attempts to create a language that could sound the main secrets of human existence, its finitude and touch to eternity, the greatness of its spirit and the lowliness of animal passions, its integrity and contradictoriness. It is interesting that sometimes scientists who are not supporters of philosophical anthropology nevertheless enriched its language, developed its categories with its original approaches to the analysis of the human essence. So, for example, it happened with representatives of postmodernism. They, creating their own language, involuntarily contributed to the development of the word, with the help of which a person could describe the meaning of his existence.

However, it must be noted that such a language has not yet been created, and philosophical anthropology has not yet become a systematized fundamental science about man.

Perhaps, it will never be so, but the need of those who think, who seek the meaning of their existence and the essence of people in such a science, will always be.