Philosophical Anthropology

“Philosophical Anthropology”, which will be reconstructed historically and systematically in this project, does not concern common “philosophical Anthropology” as a philosophical sub-discipline, but is a unique theory, which was developed in twentieth century German philosophy. If one wants to elucidate the cognitive resources of philosophical-anthropological thinking in the twentieth century, it might make sense to go back to the German philosophy of the 1920s, distinguishing two events in the philosophical discourse of the time: 1. the development of “philosophical Anthropology” in a broader sense, which claims, in a debate with other disciplines of philosophy (Epistemology, Ethics, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Language), a central status within the sciences (see the research of Bernhard Groethuysen, Michael Landmann, Christian Thies, Gerald Hartung); 2. the simultaneous constitution of a discipline called “Philosophical Anthropology” in a strict sense, a theoretical program of Max Scheler and Helmuth Plessner, which competed with other approaches and paradigms (such as Neo-Kantianism, Philosophy of Existence, Critical Theory of Frankfurt School, Hermeneutical Philosophy / Dilthey-Movement, Naturalism, Life Philosophy).

This research project focuses on Philosophical Anthropology as a paradigm, a distinctive approach, a theory of the twentieth century. The first step is a reconstruction of the complex, sometimes turbulent history of this group of thinkers from 1919 until 1975, whose most well known figures were Max Scheler, Helmuth Plessner, Arnold Gehlen, Erich Rothacker, Adolf Portmann. That includes the history of the reception and influence of this approach in various disciplines (Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, Biology, etc.). Given that the main protagonists were philosophers and sociologist (similar to Horkheimer and Adorno on Critical Theory) the impact of this paradigm is most obvious in German sociology after 1945 (e.g. Helmut Schelsky, Heinrich Popitz, Hans Paul Bahrdt, Dieter Claessens, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann). In the form of a sociological theory, Philosophical Anthropology inspired and initiated interdisciplinary social research in various fields of research: Industrial Sociology / Sociology of Work, Sociologies of the Family, Sport, Power, Art, Religion and Urban Sociology.

A second focus is the specification of a core identity of Philosophical Anthropology in the history of philosophy. Despite their differences, the authors were concerned with the reconstitution of the idealist critique of reason within the medium of a life-philosophical critique of reason. With the key concept “ex-centric positionality”, the approach becomes clear in contrast to other theoretical options such as German Idealism, Neo-Kantianism, Phenomenology, Hermeneutical Philosophy, Philosophy of Existence, naturalistic philosophy (above all the paradigm of evolutionary biology), Life Philosophy, Critical Theory of Frankfurt School, the language analytical approach, Structuralism, and Systems Theory.

In the third part of this project, the diagnostic force of this approach will be tested against current phenomena. Productive links across bio-, social, and cultural sciences will be drawn from the ample ensemble of categories in Philosophical Anthropology. Philosophical Anthropology is uniquely positioned between the natural turn of Darwinism and the cultural turn of social constructivism. Thereby the philosophical-anthropological concept of the organic, in which the living “thing” is characterized by its own “boundary” or rather its capacity for boundary-constitution, is fundamental.

 
Publications and Papers

Philosophische Anthropologie. Zur Bildungsgeschichte eines Denkansatzes (Philosophical Anthropology. The Historical Formation of an Approach),
Göttingen 2000 (Dissertation).

Philosophische Anthropologie - Eine Denkrichtung des 20. Jahrhunderts (Philosophical Anthropology – An Approach of the Twentieth Century),
Freiburg / München 2008.

Philosophische Anthropologie. Eine Denkrichtung des 20. Jahrhunderts, Study Edition, Freiburg / München 2009.

“Philosophische Anthropologie. Zur Rekonstruktion ihrer diagnostischen Kraft” (Philosophical Anthropology. Reconstruction of its Diagnostic Potential), in: Jürgen Friedrich / Bernd Westermann (ed.): Unter offenem Horizont. Anthropologie nach Helmuth Plessner. Mit einem Geleitwort v. Dietrich Goldschmidt, Frankfurt a. M. 1995, 249-280.

“Exzentrische Positionalität. Plessners Grundkategorie der Philosophischen Anthropologie” (Excentric Positionality. Plessner’s Basic Category of Philosophical Anthropology), in: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, 48/2, 2000, 265-288.

“L'approccio più influente della sociologia tedesca nel secondo dopoguerra”, in: Iride. Filosofia e discussione pubblica (ed. Andrea Borsari e Ubaldo Fadini), XVI, 39, Agosto 2003, 289-302.

Joachim Fischer / Hans Joas (ed.), Kunst, Macht und Institution. Studien zur Philosophischen Anthropologie, soziologischen Theorie und Kultursoziologie der Moderne. Festschrift für Karl-Siegbert Rehberg (Art, Power and Institution. Studies on Philosophical Anthropology, Sociological Theory and Cultural Sociology, A Festschrift for Karl-Siegbert Rehberg), Frankfurt a. M. 2003.

“Androiden - Menschen - Primaten. Philosophische Anthropologie als Platzhalterin des Humanismus” (Androids – Humans – Primates. Philosophical Anthropology as a Placeholder of Humanism), in: Richard Faber / Enno Rudolph (ed.), Humanismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Tübingen 2002, 229-239.

Italian Version: Androidi - uomini - antropoidi. L'antropologia filosofica come detentrice dell'umanismo,
in: L'uomo, un progetto incompiuto.(vol. 2). Antropologia filosofica e contemporaneità (2003), ed. Alberto Gualandi, (Trad. Milena Brentari), 263-274.

“Zur Sinneslehre von Helmuth Plessner” (On the Plessner’s Theory of the Senses), in: Philosophische Rundschau, 47/1, 2000, 47-58.

“Simmels ‚Exkurs über die Soziologie der Sinne. Zentraltext einer anthropologischen Soziologie” (Simmel’s Excursus on the Sociology of the Senses. A Central Text of an Anthropological Sociology), in: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, Themenheft: Soziologie der Sinne, 27/2, 2002, 6-13.

“Leben - das ‘grenzrealisierende Ding’. Philosophische Anthropologie als Doppelkorrektiv zwischen Genombiologie und Biomachtdiskurs” (Life – the ‘Boundary-Establishing Thing’. Philosophical Anthropology as Double Corrective of Genomic Biology and Discourse of Biopower),
in: Ulrich Bröckling / Benjamin Bühler / Marcus Hahn / Matthias Schöning / Manfred Weinberg (ed.), Disziplinen des Lebens. Zwischen Anthropologie, Literatur und Politik, Tübingen 2004, 61-71.

“Biophilosophie als Kern des Theorieprogramms der Philosophischen Anthropologie. Zur Kritik des wissenschaftlichen Radikalismus” (Bio-Philosophy as the Core of the Theoretical Program of Philosophical Anthropology), in: Gerhard Gamm / Alexandra Manzei / Matthias Gutmann (ed.), Zwischen Anthropologie und Gesellschaftstheorie. Zur Renaissance Helmuth Plessners im Kontext der modernen Lebenswissenschaften, Bielefeld 2005, 159-183.

“Der Identitätskern der Philosophischen Anthropologie (Scheler, Plessner, Gehlen)” (The Core of Identity of Philosophical Anthroplogy (Scheler, Plessner, Gehlen), in: Hans-Peter Krüger / Gesa Lindemann (ed.), Philosophische Anthropologie im 21. Jahrhundert, Berlin 2006, S. 63-82.

“Philosophische Anthropologie. Ein wirkungsvoller Denkansatz in der deutschen Soziologie nach 1945” (Philosophical Anthropology, An Influential Approach in German Sociology after 1945) in: Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 35/5 (2006), 1-25.

Website “Philosophische Anthropologie / Philosophical Anthropology” (Introduction, Literature, Links)

“Konzepte (menschlicher) Natur in der Soziologie” (Concepts of [Human] Nature in Sociology), Workshop of the Research Group ‘Philosophical Anthropology and Sociology’ , Section on Cultural Sociology of the GSA, February 3-4, 2006, Technische Universität Berlin, organized together with Gesa Lindemann.

“Wie viel (menschliche) Natur braucht die Soziologie?” Einleitung, (How much [Human] Nature Does Sociology Need?, Introduction together with Uwe Schimank,), Plenum GSA congress, Kassel 2006, in: Karl-Siegbert Rehberg (ed.), Die Natur der Gesellschaft, Frankfurt 2008, 1141-1143.

“Was ist der Mensch? Konstellationen der philosophischen Anthropologie zwischen Max Scheler und Helmuth Plessner” (What is the Human Being?),
meeting organized by Helmuth Plessner Association and Max Scheler Association in cooperation with Philosophische Fakultät of Technische Universität Dresden, Institut für Soziologie, organized together with Ralf Becker, Christian Bermes, Matthias Schloßberger, May 30 – June 2, 2007, at the Technische Universität Dresden.

La biofilosofica com nucleo de programma teorico dell'antropologia filosofica (trad. Agostino Cera), in: Nicola Russo (a cura), L'uomo e le machine. Per un'antropologia della tecnica, Napoli 2007, 165-196.

Philosophische Anthropologie - Themen und Positionen (Philosophical Anthropology – Themes and Positions),
series published by Joachim Fischer (Dresden) / Ada Neschke (Lausanne) / Gérard Raulet (Paris) / Hans-Rainer Sepp (Prag/Freiburg).
Advisory Board: Heike Delitz (Dresden) / Francesco Gregorio (Lausanne) / Cathrin Nielsen (Freiburg) / Guillaume Plas (Paris),
Nordhausen: Verlag T. Bautz 2008.

“Philosophische Anthropologie”, in: Georg Kneer / Markus Schroer (ed.), Handbuch Soziologische Theorien, Wiesbaden 2009, 323-344.

“Philosophische Anthropologie im evolutionsbiologischen Zeitalter. Bemerkungen zu einer Theoriestrategie” (Philosophical Anthropology in the Age of Evolutionary Biology. Notes on a Theoretical Strategy), in: Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz / Susann Gottlöber / René Kauffmann / Hans Rainer Sepp (ed.): Europäische Menschenbilder, Dresden 2009, 37-54.

“Exploring the Core Identity of Philosophical Anthropology through the Works of Max Scheler, Helmuth Plessner and Arnold Gehlen (trans. Christina Harrison)”, in: Iris. European Journal of Philosophy and Public Debate, Florence University Press, Florence-Italy, Volume I (2009), 153-170.

Podium: Discussione del libro di J. Fischer: Philosophische Anthropologie. Eine Denkrichtung des 20.Jahrhunderts,
Antropologia filosofica: origini, sviluppi e prospettive. Philosophische Anthropologie: Ursprünge, Entwicklungen, Perspektiven
Bressanone-Brixen, December 12, 2009.

“Tanzendes Tier oder Exzentrische Positionalität - Zur Theoriestrategie der Philosophischen Anthropologie zwischen Darwinismus und Kulturalismus” (Dancing Animal or Excentric Positionality – On the Theoretical Strategy of Philosophical Anthropology amid Darwinism and Culturalism),
in: Jochen Oehler (ed.) Der Mensch - Evolution, Natur und Kultur, Heidelberg/Berlin Oktober 2010 (in preparation).