Homo sapiens, a problematic species : an essay in philosophical anthropology / Mia Gosselin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gosselin, Mia.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human beings.

Philosophical anthropology.

Physical Description:

x, 263 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : University Press of America, [2015]

Summary:

Homo Sapiens, A Problematic Species examines how Western culture has understood and continues to understand what it is to be human. This book features reflections on mythical thought and its logic and contrasts it to the Western conception of man as expressed in philosophy from antiquity to the twentieth century, its main sources being Christianity and the idealistic tenet in antique Greek philosophy. The author stresses the necessity to break away from a religious and metaphysical perception of man that is inevitably anthropocentric in order to construct a more scientifically based anthropology appropriate to tackle the threats our species poses to the vast ecological system on Earth. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Before Philosophy

Chapter 1 The psychology of mythical thought 3

Chapter 2 The human individual in primitive thought 19

Introduction 19

About the logic in primitive thought 22

Central myth 23

Self-conception 27

Name-giving 31

History 36

Chapter 3 The conflict between primitive ways of thinking and Aristotelian logic 41

The continuation of primitive thought in Greek philosophy 41

Aristotelian logic compared with primitive logic 47

The advantages of his logic according to Aristotle 49

We use Aristotelian logic in science and daily life 50

The relation between metaphysics and religion on the one hand, science and logic on the other 52

Part II Philosophers on the Subject of Man. A Concise Historical Overview

General Introduction 69

About Western culture and the sources of its conception of man 69

Reasons for the development of science 70

Chapter 4 Antiquity 75

Philosophers of nature: man a natural phenomenon 75

Pythagoras: A new type of philosophy 79

Plato: An idealistic conception of the world 82

Aristotle 88

Neo-Platonism: A long-lasting world view 97

Chapter 5 The Church Fathers and the philosophers of the Middle Ages: theology and philosophy, a compromise 105

The religious source of inspiration: Judeo-Christianity 105

The Church Fathers and the philosophers of the Middle Ages 116

The Renaissance 133

Chapter 6 Rationalism versus Empiricism 137

Descartes' dualistic rationalism at the origin of modern subjectivism 137

The concept of man of an empiricist: David Hume 141

Chapter 7 Idealism and Marxism 151

Hegel: man by his thought transforms the material world into spirituality 151

Marx: man humanises nature by his production 161

Chapter 8 A complete break with Western tradition 175

Schopenhauer: the first non-anthropocentric philosophy 175

Nietzsche's philosophy: breaking with a millenary tradition 191

Chapter 9 The twentieth century: more of the same 215

German philosophical anthropology 215

Teilhard de Chardin: an attempt to combine evolutionism and theology 224

Existentialism: Jean Paul Sartre's extreme subjectivist anthropocentrism 231.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [257]-260) and index.

ISBN:

0761865195

9780761865193

OCLC:

894625624