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Philosophical anthropology (the study of man)
Man as a philosophical problem. In the history of philosophy, it is almost impossible to find a philosopher or a philosophical direction that did not refer to man, that did not directly or indirectly analyze various aspects of human material and spiritual existence. Most philosophical and religious systems view man as a microcosm or microcosm, as opposed to the macrocosm or macrocosm, and view him as the key to understanding the universe. Philosophers have repeatedly realized that reaching the bottom of the secret of man is equal to reaching the bottom of the puzzle of existence. Because as Farobi said - "People create society according to their characteristics and natural needs." Their actions and actions are initially determined by natural abilities that gradually become habits"1. Understand yourself and thereby understand the world. All attempts to know the world from the surface without going into the deep layers of a person allow to form only a superficial idea of things. If we look from man to the surface, we cannot understand the essence of things, because this essence is embodied in man himself.
This idea was well known to ancient thinkers. It can be found in various forms both in the East and in the Greco-Roman philosophical tradition. In particular, in antiquity, the phrase "Know thyself" that was engraved on a column at the entrance to the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, which Socrates liked to repeat, according to the legends, was especially famous. Surprisingly, after two and a half thousand years, this idea has not lost its importance. It remains a thought that invites self-awareness for everyone who tries to understand not only the world of things, but also the essence of human existence, the true nature of human and social relations. This can only be explained by the fact that, in this case, a word about one of the extremely complex, "eternal" philosophical problems that each new generation tries to solve from the point of view of its time and the corresponding level of natural-scientific and philosophical imagination. is held.
There are many other expressions known to history, which, regardless of time, culture and religious belief, have always been and still are the center of attention of the world's thinkers, the fulcrum and even indicates that it serves as a criterion of knowledge. In particular, according to the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, "one who knows others is wise, and one who knows oneself is wise." Protagoras' opinion: "Man is the standard of all things" is also very famous. "The kingdom of God is within us," taught Jesus Christ. The call of the Buddhists: "Look at yourself, you are the Buddha" is also consistent with the above idea. It is said in Islam, "Whoever knows himself, knows God."
Therefore, a person knows himself before and more than the world, that is why he understands the world after him and through him. Philosophy is knowing the world from within through man, and science is knowing the world outside of man superficially. Absolute existence is manifested in man, and relative existence is manifested outside of man.
Human problem in the history of philosophy. Since antiquity, interest in man has waxed and waned for a while, but never disappeared. The question "What is a human being?" remains one of the most important issues in world philosophy today, as before, it does not escape the attention of the sharpest intellectuals of mankind, and at the same time, it has its long, general e has not been able to find a recognized solution.
Every time thinkers take a place in the center of attention of a person, they try to understand its essence in a new historical context and from a new point of view, and they rediscover it again and again. In the end, it is no exaggeration to say that there is no more complex and controversial subject in the science of philosophy than man.
Man is a unique, unique and perfect being that embodies all good qualities - both as an infinite microcosm, as an error of nature doomed to destruction due to the deficiency and corruption of human nature, as a servant created by God, and as a product of other people's activities. is also interpreted. In particular, Eastern thinker A. Beruni, for the first time in world science, studies the relationship between man and nature, man and the universe from the perspective of world science. He said, "The difference in the structure of people in terms of color, image, nature, and morals is not only due to the differences in lineages, but also the differences in the soil, water, air, and land, as well as the places where people live. The reason for the diversity of languages is that people are divided into groups, they stay away from each other, and each of them needs words to express different desires. With the passage of time, these expressions multiplied, were memorized, and as a result of repetition, they found content and became organized. Therefore, in Beruni's opinion, the image and character of a person's character and spiritual views are formed directly under the influence of the natural environment. After all, this natural environment, geographical conditions can be an important basis for the formation of peoples and nations. "Man has a complex body by nature. The human body consists of parts that are opposite to each other, and these parts are united based on the power of subordination. According to Beruni, all people have aspects that are similar and at the same time different. Ibn Sina said, "Man differs from all other animals in his speech, language, mind, and thinking. "The human mind is enriched by learning various subjects," he believes. According to Farobi, according to his nature, a person needs other people to organize, strengthen and improve his life. No one can do this alone. "Man is such a creature that he can satisfy his needs and rise to a higher spiritual level only in society." A person should be an architect and creator of his own life, he should cultivate virtues and talents in himself. He can achieve this only when he lives and works in society. Man is a social being. Loneliness impoverishes him, he loses his human form and the talent that leads to happiness. Ibn Khaldun views man as a social reality. He looks for a social essence from it. Man as a creature is a world of good and evil. Accordingly, he is an inestimable gift, the possessor of intelligence, condemned to live every moment of his life striving for goodness over evil, good over evil, love over hate.
The idea that a person is a set of all social relations collides with the ideas put forward by the thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment who approached the person from a mechanistic point of view, in particular, the author of the work called "Man-Machine", the French J. Lametrie (1709-1751).
In the works of another famous French philosopher, R. Descartes (1596-1650), we encounter a completely different approach to the issue of human nature. He believes that "man is a thinking thing."
"Man, as he thought for a long time, is not the static center of the world, but the peak of evolution itself, which is much more beautiful," noted the famous French philosopher and theologian PT de Chardin (1881-1955 ).
Contrary to it, A. Schopenhauer (1788-1860) emphasizes that man is a flawed being, he calls him a "freak of nature".
The French writer and philosopher JPSartre (1905-1980) completely rejects this idea. According to him, man strives towards the future and thus creates himself. He emphasizes that "Man is the future of mankind."
Thus, during the history of two and a half thousand years of philosophy, man has been given so many definitions and descriptions that he has acquired so many synonyms that it is difficult to encounter such a situation in any other object of philosophical analysis. After all, in the history of philosophy, man:
• "intelligent being";
• "political animal";
• "Nature Gultoji";
• "dead end of life";
• "false step of life";
• "an animal that makes working tools";
• "a being capable of self-awareness";
• interpreted as "spiritual and free being" etc.
The reason for such diversity of opinions should be sought first of all in the nature of a person. The mystery of human nature is, without a doubt, one of the "eternal problems" that philosophy has and will continue to turn to again and again according to the nature and nature of its subject. Here, the question of the origin of man, which is the target of all opinions in this field, is of particular importance. If we single out the most important ones among the numerous ideas about where and how man appeared, all of them can be combined with a certain degree of conditionality within the framework of two main concepts - the concepts of natural and unnatural origin of man.
The first approach to the origin of man originates from the idea of a legitimate development of nature that led to the emergence of man. In this, man is considered as a product of natural evolution of inanimate, and later, living matter. This concept is based on the theory of evolution, which was published in 1859 by Ch. Darwin in his famous work "On the Origin of Animal and Plant Species", which is the basis for the natural-scientific interpretation of human origin, and is currently achieved in the field of molecular biology and genetic engineering. under the influence of the latest achievements, it has significantly changed its shape and serves as a unique program for most scientists in their scientific activities.
It should also be noted that humans have a strong genetic similarity not only with highly developed living creatures, but also with extremely simple creatures. In particular, this similarity with a chimpanzee is 98%, with a rat - 80%, and even with a banana - 50%.
However, it should be noted that supporters of the "natural" approach can rely on both a secular concept of human origin (as, for example, in connection with Darwinists) and a cosmic concept.
The second approach looks at man as the product of the work of God or the cosmic Mind, deriving him from a supernatural basis. Although this concept is demonstrably inferior to the first doctrine from the point of view of modern natural science, but from a philosophical point of view it has the same right to exist as the concept of the natural-scientific origin of man, since both the first approach and the second approach are rationally based and exhaustive. does not provide evidence.
Approach to man from the point of view of philosophy. We will return to a purely philosophical approach to man and show that, no matter how much philosophy deals with man, it cannot know everything about him and consider this knowledge as absolute and the ultimate truth. Now we would like to note that man began to think about himself and the world around him long before the emergence of philosophy. But later, even after the "love of wisdom" appeared, the human subject did not immediately occupy the center of attention of philosophy.
Depending on the accumulation of knowledge about the nature that surrounds man and their development, the interest of man in himself has also increased, new and new characteristics of human existence have been revealed, which create wider opportunities for research in this field. Philosophical interest in the human being is especially strong during the periods when serious and profound changes took place in the life of the society in a short period of time, when the old ideas and views, which form the basis of human relations, were completely changed. In such times, the interest in the age-old questions about the essence of man, his duty, task and responsibility for the happening events has increased again in philosophy. Thus, along with departments of philosophy such as ontology, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, the field of human knowledge was gradually formed. Here, man was not only analyzed from different angles, but his interaction with social, natural and cosmic processes was also studied.
So, what kind of positive knowledge has accumulated over the centuries in this field of knowledge? Has progress been made in understanding man? What undoubted achievements can be noted in the field of philosophy and science that describe the essence of man and illuminate his important features?
If we sum up the centuries-old efforts to understand the human being and separate out those that can be considered to be completely solved, the number of achievements will undoubtedly not be very large. Among them, first of all, it is necessary to note the fact that the appearance of man is inextricably linked with the development of life on Earth, and has its own origin and specific history. In particular, in 1982, the participants of the congress organized by the Pope's Academy of Sciences in the Vatican - world-famous anthropologists, biochemists and geneticists, based on modern natural science, came to the general conclusion that there is a close connection between man and the animal world.
The gradual development of man and the world around him can be considered proven. This is confirmed not only by archeology and the Earth's geological history, but also by current ideas about life on Earth and the evolutionary processes in the world explained by the generally accepted theory of the "expanding Universe".
However, science, especially genetics, continues to make new discoveries that sometimes completely change our previous ideas. In particular, geneticists from the cloning process, which makes it possible to create biological copies of living beings, have seriously challenged the inductive conclusion of ancient philosophers that there is no immortal man, who previously relied only on ordinary experience. they came close to a result capable of leaving doubt. In particular, Italian scientists discovered that a particular gene, known as P66SHC, controls the aging process in mammals. They were able to "control" this gene and thereby extend the life of the tested animals by 35% compared to the average life expectancy of the population.
Nevertheless, physical immortality today is scientifically considered to be contrary to the fundamental laws of biology. According to these laws, the decline in the ability of cells to reproduce by division limits human life. In particular, it has been determined that the mature human body consists of approximately 50 billion cells. "The number of consecutive divisions in one cell generation is up to fifty in a person during his lifetime. Taking into account the process of division, it can be assumed that the length of human life (except for some exceptional cases) cannot exceed 000 years»110.
However, science does not stand still, and therefore the reports that appear in the press from time to time about the efforts of geneticists to find a substance that stops cell aging, as well as to identify a gene that controls the release of this substance in the body, are serious. 'requires attention.
The definition of some important problems that pave the way for finding answers to the questions of what is a person and what is his essence should be considered as an undoubted result of scientific research. The most important of them is to determine the origin of man, as well as the nature of consciousness, language, creativity, morals, spirituality and so on.
Anyone who is determined to understand these issues,
what is life
Where and when did the first man appear?
o What is the nature of human spirituality?
o What is the reason for the appearance of man on earth?
Is there a certain logic, regularity, predetermined inevitability in this, or was it caused by some coincidence, anomaly, someone's desire?
Is life a cosmic phenomenon or does it only exist on our planet?
It is impossible to ignore such issues as: Is man the only intelligent being in the universe?
Philosophical and scientific thinking are constantly searching for solutions to these and other similar problems. But for natural science, most of them are not only difficult, but also insoluble, and in some cases completely open questions, because the existing knowledge about them is so little, superficial and full of problems, that judgments based on such knowledge (other judgments exist at all not) may be approximate in its degree of reliability.
But where science has lost its power, or is not yet full of power, philosophy feels free, unconstrained by clear definitions, uniform language, uniform methodology, and reliable evidence. This is expressed in a specific field - anthropology.
As philosophy investigates "eternal" issues and tries to determine the primary foundations and essential values of all existence, it does not pretend to obtain definitive solutions and unequivocal answers. The lack of tested arguments and proven grounds does not embarrass him, because philosophy is content with intuition, clairvoyance, inspiration, hypotheses, guesses, additions based on logical force, which allow it to deviate from the range of existing knowledge and formed ideas. it allows to freely explain something or a phenomenon that does not have a clearly proven scientific solution. In this way, philosophy expands the boundaries of human knowledge and not only elevates it to a higher level, but also enriches it with new approaches, different points of view, and most importantly, new interpretations of old problems that allow us to pose new problems.
In this sense, S.Sherazi's answer to the question "What does a person begin with?" without hesitation: "A person begins with mourning for the deceased." I came to the world, I went to the market, I took the shroud, I went to the grave.
Thus, in true philosophy, there is no uniform way of thinking about certain issues, especially complex human issues. In contrast, consensus in science indicates that a definitive solution to a particular problem has been found. For example, there is complete unanimity among scientists regarding the issue of creating an "eternal engine": it is impossible to create such an engine according to the laws of modern science. But unlike science, the peculiarity of philosophy is that it consists of a system of values and goals, which are based on the study and understanding of any phenomenon. For this reason, how one or another philosopher understands the world, his attitude to life plays an especially important role here. From what axioms he puts forward, what priorities he notes, what he considers important, what he believes or does not believe, the corresponding attitude of the philosopher to other things, his philosophical position on general and private issues are derived.
Thus, unlike science, where the tradition of reducing knowledge to a common denominator prevails for a long time, philosophy puts forward different, including mutually exclusive, points of view, describing different approaches to understanding the same phenomena and objects. The abundance of various philosophical concepts of human understanding is explained by this fact. In these concepts, a person has always been interpreted as a general image, as a specific person in his individual existence, as an intelligent being inextricably linked with other people, community, society, humanity, and finally with nature and space. .
The multidimensionality of man. In addition to this, it is possible to note a large number of other approaches to the study of a person, among which the "introvertive" and "extrovertive" approaches stand out.
The introvertive approach involves analyzing the important characteristics of a person, such as mind, soul, psyche, instincts, defects, and qualities, and understanding it "from the inside". Philosophical considerations about the physical and spiritual essence of a person in most cases rely on the empirical data of natural sciences, first of all, the achievements of biology and psychology, but sometimes they are determined by mysticism, esotericism, and occultism. Such approaches are especially characteristic of the work of German anthropologists M. Scheler (1874-1928) and A. Gelen (1904-1976), Austrian philosopher K. Lawrence (1903-1989).
The extroverted approach is to look at a person, to analyze his essence supposedly "from the surface", as a result of which his social and natural essence takes the center of attention; according to the relevant objectives, the relationship of man with God, cosmos, universe, etc. is analyzed. Here, philosophy often forms an alliance with history, sociology, ecology, theology, which is more characteristic of representatives of religious philosophy, such as NA Berdyaev, SNBulgakov, SLFrank, NOLossky.
Thus, there is no single basis for the philosophical understanding of man, just as there is no reason to hope that such a basis will appear in the near future. For the time being, it can only be noted that depending on which of the above, such as the cosmos, nature, God, society, or man himself, is the focus of attention, which will be the basis for solving issues related to the understanding of man in the history of philosophy. different philosophical viewpoints differ. Among them, cosmocentrism, theocentrism, sociocentrism, and anthropocentrism are especially common, each of them manifested in different forms in different periods, but always existed in one way or another in philosophical concepts studying human problems.
Man in Eastern philosophy. Philosophical systems of the Ancient East, especially China, consist mainly of sociocentric concepts, in which a person, as a rule, is considered to be inextricably linked with society. Compliance with the "law of ideal relations" among people, in the family, society, and state is an important meaning of human life; it is possible to respect the norms, rules, customs and the like accepted in the society. In other words, a person should always measure his personal life with the development and maturity of the society, in particular, he should improve himself in order to try to improve the family and the state. In this sense, the thoughts of the famous ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius (551-479 BC) are noteworthy. ) reaches the ultimate level of perfection. When the intentions are pure and unbiased, the heart is honest and sincere. if the heart is honest and sincere, a person enters the right path and becomes perfect. When a person enters the right path and matures, order is established in the family. When there is order in the family, it becomes easier to rule the nations. If it becomes easier to manage people, the whole world will live in peace"1.
Ancient Indian philosophy is characterized by putting the inner world of the world first, that is, anthropocentrism.
For example, in Buddhism, the attainment of nirvana is declared to be the ultimate goal of all human intentions. Nirvana is such a state of the soul, in which all desires disappear and inner harmony arises, a feeling of complete freedom and independence from the external world appears.
Another religious and philosophical teaching of the ancient Indians - from the point of view of Jainism, a person must go through a long and difficult path - the path of liberation of the soul - in order to achieve control and management of the material essence with his spiritual essence. .
In the views of Central Asian thinkers, man is governed by the theoretical mind. For example, according to al-Farabi, "The thing that shapes a person's personality, distinguishes him from other creatures and develops human qualities in him is his active mind. This power is first of all only an ability, this power is capable of thinking, reasoning, but applying it to life, that is, current is not able to do." In order to apply the mind to life, it must be influenced by an external force, which is the active mind. The active mind is an independent power that can think about its own essence, the essence of First and Second and other causes. It is this active mind that influences human capabilities to external events and motivates its development. According to Farobi, "he rises from the material mind to a higher stage of the practical mind, and his relation to the active mind is like comparing the eye to the sun." If there is no sun, man cannot see things. After the sun of the active mind appears in the human soul, the mental power turns to the active mind. Man is a natural animal, that is, an intelligent being. According to Yusuf Khos Khajib, a person is not eternal in this world, every person who comes to this world will leave when his time is up. The value of a person's life is determined not by how many years he lived, but by what kind of good deeds he did and the mark he left on life. After that person passes away, two types of names will remain in this world, one is bad and the other is good. He said that a person should leave a good name and receive good applause as much as possible.
In general, Eastern thinking, which has been busy searching for a common basis in man in all times, has a different approach to understanding man and his relationship with the outside world than in Western philosophy. At the beginning of the XNUMXth century, the Indian thinker S. Vivekananda wrote: "Man is born to subjugate nature, and this is appropriate, but the West understands only the material, external world by "nature". This outer nature, with all its mountains, oceans, rivers, its infinite powers, its infinite variety, is very glorious, but there is an even more glorious world, which is the inner world of man. It is higher than the sun, the stars, the earth, and the entire material Universe, a world beyond the narrow confines of our personal little lives. Just as the Western man is "his own" in the outer world, so the Eastern man is "his own" in this inner world. Therefore... If the West wants to know what is the spiritual world, what is God, what is the human soul, and what is the secret and meaning of the world, it should bow down and listen at the feet of the East. As the world now needs a certain spiritual awakening, it will take its strength from the East" ...
According to Ibn Khaldun, there is goodness and evil in human nature. If people are left to their own devices and are not educated in the spirit of humanity, then few will be able to obtain God's blessing. When he has to choose between good and evil, he chooses evil, because human nature is more prone to evil. Injustice and attacking others is a human trait. Therefore, it is necessary to achieve forgiveness so that people do not harm each other in society
The quoted words not only have a deep meaning, but also take on a special significance in terms of the globalization of the current world and the formation of a single humanity.
Man in Western philosophy. Along with the above-mentioned approaches to man, problems of nature and space have occupied a special place in Eastern thought. In this, a person is considered as a particle in a huge world. But the cosmocentric approach to the world is more characteristic of the early stages of the development of ancient philosophy. According to this interpretation of the world, the problems of the world and space come to the fore, which prepare the ground for reflection on the human being, which was the center of attention of philosophy in the time of Socrates.
From the point of view of cosmocentrism, a person is first of all perceived as a part of the cosmos, as a "small world" (Democritus), as a microcosm inextricably linked with the macrocosm, which is sometimes imagined as a living organism. Ancient philosophers believed that by understanding the Universe and the existing order in it, it is possible to understand the person himself (Plato, Aristotle). Because thinking, knowledge, intelligence and wisdom play an important role in this, they have always been highly valued by cosmocentrists, they have been put in the first place in the assessment of man and his abilities.
Such views can be observed in the European philosophical tradition until the XNUMXth century, when they were replaced by the concept of theocentrism. According to this concept, everything is determined by God. According to various creationist theories reflecting the essence of Christianity, the whole world, including the living world (plants, animals, man) was created immediately and in its perfect form. This point of view, based on the biblical narrative that the world was created in six days, prevailed in European thought until Darwin's theory of evolution appeared, that is, until the middle of the XNUMXth century. Among religious people in the Christian world, it is still practiced today.
From the perspective of theocentrism, the understanding of the essence of man is not through rational thinking, as in, for example, the ancient Greek philosophers or later materialistic philosophical concepts, but with the help of the revelations described in the Bible. These revelations can only be understood by believing in the teachings of the Bible. From the point of view of theocentrism, the mind illuminated by the light of faith helps to define only some of its aspects, not the person himself, who is considered a component of the divine order in the world and acts as "the image of God". For this reason, Christianity, like other theocentric philosophical systems that recognize God as the supreme essence and treat man as His created servant, declares man to be an unfathomable mystery, an enigma, like God himself.
During the Renaissance, when other philosophical views - anthropocentrism and cosmocentrism - began to supplant the philosophy of theocentrism, there were serious changes in views on man. In the Middle Ages, man acted as a representative of one or another corporation, but in the Renaissance, he began to express his own interests as a result of the growing sense of self and social perspective. Man has matured as a person. He became more and more aware of himself as the creator of his personal life and destiny. Man tried to be independent and to subjugate nature to himself, he began to believe that his creative possibilities are unlimited. These views were reflected in the famous work of the Italian philosopher Pico della Mirandola called "Speech on human dignity". An all-around perfect person who understands fine arts, architecture, ethics, aesthetics, literature and pedagogy became the ideal of that time. The Renaissance gave the world such famous people as Leonardo da Vinci, Alberti Botticelli, Raphael, who fully corresponded to this ideal.
In the philosophy of that time, along with the increased interest in man, the interest in nature was revived. The pantheistic concepts of N. Kuzansky and J. Bruno began to displace the Christian God. The cosmocentrism of the Greeks was reinterpreted as naturalcentrism. In this, the ancient philosophers' visions of the ultimate cosmos, with the Earth at its center, gave way to an infinite and centerless cosmos.
Such space is equated with a more general and broader concept - "nature". Since then, it has been actively studied in various philosophical systems. In particular, it becomes a fundamental concept in the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment, occupies a central place in Schelling's work, and is also considered a base point in the understanding of the world and man in some current philosophical concepts aimed at ecology. According to this approach, man is considered as an integral part of nature. Consistent supporters of such views, for example, representatives of social ecology developed in the second half of the XNUMXth century, note that it is necessary to focus attention from overly broad nature to a specific part of it - the biosphere, where a person carries out his life activities, and in doing so, they abandon anthropocentric views and replace them with biospherocentrism. require replacement. In biospherocentrism, it is proposed to place nature instead of man in the center of philosophical research, and thus nature is not considered from the point of view of human needs, but human essence and its needs are studied from the point of view of knowledge of natural laws and the trends of gradual development of the biosphere.
In the new era, man did not fall from the focus of philosophy, but interest in him was mainly connected with his participation in social relations. In the new era, man was approached as a knowing subject. For example, Descartes saw the essence of man, his unique character, in his thinking, thinking ability. French materialist philosophers of the XNUMXth century (Diderot, Holbach, Helvetsy, Lametri) under the influence of the amazing achievements in the field of natural science and mechanics, equated the human soul with the mind, and the body with an automaton, and interpreted it mechanistically.
The great German philosopher I. Kant (1724-1804) took an important step towards understanding man. He believed that a person is a unique being and that it is possible to conduct a separate philosophical discussion about him. At the same time, he said, "The goal of all success in the field of culture, which serves as a school for man, is to implement the acquired knowledge and skills. But the most important subject in the world, where this knowledge can be applied, is man, because he is the ultimate goal for him"1.
Among all the diversity of the world, I. Kant distinguished three different but interconnected levels of nature: non-living nature, living nature and human nature. According to him, at each of these levels, nature obeys its own laws, such as: non-living nature - mechanical laws, living nature - expediency, and human nature is characterized by freedom. At the same time, he emphasizes that human nature cannot be connected to the other two natures and known through them. Human nature can only be understood in accordance with its own laws that arise from freedom. Thus, I. Kant created new opportunities for the study of a person by putting forward the idea that a person should be considered an object of nature, like other animate and inanimate objects in it, and thus led to the creation of philosophical anthropology as an independent department of philosophical knowledge. 'l opened.
After I. Kant, in the German classical philosophy, man was mainly understood as a subject of spiritual activity creating the world of culture, as a common ideal base - the source of soul, mind. L. Feuerbach (1804-1872) opposed this approach. Contrary to the concepts ("idea", "soul") that prevailed in the philosophy of objective idealism at that time, he put forward the category of "man". Feuerbach approached man not as a product of historical spiritual development, but primarily as a biological, emotional-physical being, and addressed the natural-biological basis in him. In it, man is not a slave created by God, but a part of nature, and not a mechanism, as noted by French philosophers, but an organism.
That is why Feuerbach's philosophy was called "anthropological materialism". His approach to man is characterized by the fact that naturalness and sociality in man are explained in terms of materialistic monism. This means that man is considered both as a biological being, the product of the gradual development of non-living and living nature, and as a social being whose essence is determined by social relations.
Since the XNUMXth century, European philosophical thought has moved towards the individual and historical identification of human existence with the efforts of such philosophers as F. Schelling, A. Schopenhauer, M. Stirner, S. Kierkegaard, F. Nietzsche, N. Berdyaev, A. Bergson. . Concepts of life, sensations, will, irrationality became the subject of special philosophical analysis and were later developed in the philosophy of existentialism, intuitionism and personalism.
In particular, from the point of view of existentialism, the objective world is primarily "human existence", and it is impossible to say anything about the world outside of man. It is appropriate to talk about human existence, because a person asks questions about existence, organizes its content, experiences it, understands it.
A brief historical-philosophical look at the human problem shows that by the beginning of the XNUMXth century, all conditions were created for the emergence of a new independent field of knowledge in philosophy - the doctrine of man, that is, philosophical anthropology.
Emergence and development of philosophical anthropology. Etymologically, the term "philosophical anthropology" is derived from the Greek words sophia - wisdom, anthropos - human and logos - teaching. Philosophical anthropology reflects philosophical views on the origin, gradual development and specific features of human existence as a separate source of existence.
As mentioned above, philosophical teachings about man originated in ancient times and pass through the entire history of philosophy. Confucius, Socrates, Heraclitus, Stoics, Cynics, Augustine, Thomas, Farabi, Ibn Sina, A. Navai, A. Jami, Descartes, Rousseau, Kant, Feuerbach, Nietzsche and others created a philosophical and theoretical image of a person, and philosophical anthropology is independent of philosophical knowledge. prepared the ground for its emergence as a department.
In this sense, the first roots of philosophical anthropology can be found in the works of French materialists of the XNUMXth century. But with the efforts of Kant and Feuerbach, who introduced and founded the anthropological principles raising the problem of the essence of man to the level of the "one, universal and supreme" subject of philosophy, philosophical anthropology began to take shape as an independent philosophical discipline.
Philosophical anthropology emerged in the 20s of the XNUMXth century mainly under the influence of the works of M. Scheler, A. Gehlen, H. Plesner. In particular, M. Scheler's work "Man's place in the cosmos" notes the need to create a fundamental science about man and proposes a program for his philosophical knowledge. According to the author, a holistic philosophical understanding of a person should be combined with certain scientific results obtained in relation to various aspects of human existence.
M. Sheler believes that philosophical anthropology should play a unifying role in creating a holistic concept of a person and understanding it from a certain scientific, philosophical and religious point of view. He said, "The task of philosophical anthropology is to clearly show how all the unique monopolies, works and actions of man: language, conscience, tools, weapons... state, leadership, myth, religion, science... originate from the basic structure of human existence. 1, notes that.
The essence of the science of philosophical anthropology. The need to unify knowledge about man was discussed even before Scheler. By the middle of the XNUMXth century, it was clear that the human being is a very complex structure, which cannot be fully understood only by philosophy or any other specific scientific methods, that is, the human being cannot be the subject of accurate knowledge as a whole. became Also, some natural sciences, each in its own field, have accumulated significant material over time that requires more general conclusions.
The need for such a generalization became especially acute with the emergence of Darwin's theory of evolution. This theory gave a strong impetus to natural-scientific research about man, and also served as an additional basis for the development of materialistic philosophical concepts.
Proponents of this approach proceed from the fact that a person is a multidimensional and constantly changing being. Although its essential features remain unchanged for thousands of years, they do not fully express the essence of man. Proponents of this approach consider man as an active basis, where he puts new and new puzzles before himself, tries to determine the external world, his place in it, and changes it at his own discretion by studying the environment. they also pay attention to the fact that it is considered a valid microcosm.
In other words, man is a creator and at the same time a product of culture, a source of spirituality that allows him to distinguish himself from the rest of the living world.
Proponents of philosophical anthropology note that, based on this interpretation of a person, this science cannot claim to promote consistent scientific views and that it should be focused on creating a system of knowledge about a person that synthesizes various approaches and conclusions of certain disciplines: psychology, sociology, biology and other social sciences. . According to them, this science defines the existence of a person as its subject, analyzes its essence and characteristics, and thus tries to understand both the person himself and the world around him from the point of view of philosophy. "Anthropology, or to be more precise - anthropological consciousness lays the foundation not only for ontology and cosmology, but also for epistemology and philosophy of knowledge, any philosophy and any knowledge"1.
In the 60s and 70s of the XNUMXth century, philosophical anthropology became such an ideological movement that scientists tried to theoretically understand and interpret the current state of man, to promote a new approach to his nature. During this period, the development of science and technology and the growing sense of responsibility for the results of one's scientific and practical activities gave an additional impetus to the development of philosophical anthropology. Thus, it has now become a component of a more general body of knowledge about man - general anthropology. This science includes various teachings, concepts and directions, among which, in addition to the philosophical direction, there are biological, theological (religious), sociological, psychological, cultural (ethnographic), structuralist, pedagogical and other directions. directions can be noted.
Each of them, unlike the philosophical direction, illuminates a certain side of a person. For example, biological anthropology, relying on anatomy, physiology, the doctrine of race, and the like, determines the difference of man from all other living things in terms of his physical structure. Theological anthropology formulates relevant ideas about man from the point of view of God's creation. Philosophical anthropology solves a completely different task - it approaches the situation holistically and draws conclusions of an interdisciplinary nature.
As a component of philosophical knowledge, philosophical anthropology is inextricably linked with social philosophy, ethics, sociology and psychology, and together with them forms a set of human sciences.
The biosocial essence of man. Among the important problems solved by philosophical anthropology, the question of the relationship between the biological and social essence of man occupies a special place. The fact that man is a part of living nature and a product of biological evolution has become a clear and almost indisputable proof not only for scientists and specialists, but also for a wide range of enlightened people in modern natural science. Each person is unique according to their biological characteristics: genetic code, weight, height, client, skin and hair color, life expectancy, and so on. However, at the same time, there is no doubt that man is a social being, his uniqueness and uniqueness are determined by the social nature of man, the social environment in which he grew up, received education, acquired cultural and moral values and goals.
For this reason, the human individual acquires a unique characteristic not only as a biological, but also as a social being. In other words, human development takes place in society and only in society.
Dualism and monism in understanding man. From the recognition of the biological and social differences between people and their uniqueness, two important approaches to understanding the totality of human nature arise: dualistic and monistic approaches.
The dualistic approach to man, which arose in ancient times, consists in the fact that, on the one hand, man is considered as a being composed of a material organism, and on the other hand, an immaterial soul, which is considered an independent essence and controls this organism. This approach, for example, Plato believed that the immortal soul, which lives in the world of eternal ideas, enters the body of a person when he is born, as if he were in a dungeon, and after his death, he leaves the body and returns to the world of ideas. It is especially prominent in his philosophy. The idea of the immortality of souls is also characteristic of the Eastern philosophical tradition.
The monistic concept of human interpretation, supported by the majority of modern scientists, originates from the concept that the human psyche, its feelings, thoughts, emotions and mood are nothing but the product of the life activity of brain nerve cells, which are considered a component of the human organism. According to the supporters of this approach, there is not enough evidence to believe that mental phenomena have some kind of immaterial basis, so there is no need to go beyond the limits of material processes occurring in the human organism in explaining the nature of the psyche.
Thus, the described problem is not related to the question of whether man is by nature only a biological being or only a social being. He is, without a doubt, both a biological and a social being.
But what is the relationship between these two fundamentals, whether one is superior to the other, and what defines the human essence is now a matter of heated debate. These issues have not yet found their final solution, the various biological, psychological and philosophical schools that exist now give different answers to these questions.
Among the existing approaches to the solution of the above-mentioned problem, the concepts of biologization and sociologization, which are the expression of opposite points of view regarding the understanding of the biosocial nature of a person, occupy a special place. In this case, each of them does not completely reject the other, but prefers or even absolutizes a certain (biological or social) nature of a person.
Biological concepts. Proponents of biological concepts try to explain man based on his natural, biological basis. At the end of the XNUMXth century, the theory of T. Malthus, who proposed to look at the life of society as a field of struggle for existence of some people, can be considered as the first serious attempt at such an explanation. According to Malthus, in this struggle, the strong will win and the weak will perish. This struggle is motivated by natural factors. In particular, the population increases in geometric progression, while the supply of means of subsistence increases only in arithmetic progression, which inevitably leads to famine, epidemics, wars and other social disturbances. Malthus considers these factors as "natural", inevitable and even necessary regulatory means of social relations that ensure the survival of the strong.
The unsolved demographic problems, as well as the fact that they became more acute in the XNUMXth century, are the reasons why Malthusian ideas found and continue to find their followers called neo-Malthusians.
Biological approaches are characteristic of social Darwinists who, at the border of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, absolutized Darwin's theory of natural selection and tried to explain not only the origin of man, but also his essence, and ultimately the nature of all social relations. Currently, this trend is continued by sociobiology, which emphasizes heredity, which is common to both humans and animals. According to sociobiologists, both human and animal behavior are determined by genetic factors, and no one can overcome the influence of heredity, be it good or bad.
Similar views on human nature can be found in racist conceptions that declare the superiority of some people over others based solely on their "superior" or "inferior" racial identity. This is particularly prominent in the fascist ideology, which fought for "racial purity" and actively promoted the idea of "racial selection". At the core of these ideas is eugenics, the doctrine of what means and how to achieve the "higher quality of human heredity", which was widespread in the late XNUMXth and early XNUMXth centuries.
At the beginning of the 1920th century, this doctrine was so widespread that it was inextricably linked with state policy in some countries. In particular, in the 1930s and XNUMXs, racial laws were adopted in society in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, which socially reinforced natural selection.
Concepts of sociologization. In contrast to the biological approach, the sociologization approach tries to see human nature in social relations. In doing so, they sometimes not only contrast man's social basis with his biological basis, but consider the last-mentioned basis to be animalistic and even base, and therefore not worthy of serious attention. The main focus is on the analysis of social relations and determining what role society plays in the formation of an individual. Ultimately, the social framework takes precedence over the individual framework, subjugates and subsumes it. This approach is particularly characteristic of total social systems and philosophical teachings that try to underpin them, in particular, Plato's philosophy. In general, this is a problem of individualism and collectivism.
The essence of man. In the process of trying to understand the essence of a person, it is necessary to take into account that he has not only external, but also internal, hidden characteristics, which collectively form a certain image of a person, which is reflected in concepts such as individual, individuality, person. In other words, the essence of a person should be sought in the unity of his inner and outer being, in his active relationship to the world.
Thus, if an individual acts as a general image of a certain person, and if individuality characterizes him as the possessor of certain unique characteristics, the concept of "person" is assigned a narrower meaning, because in this case a person is taken as a whole with all his social qualities, which is only it allows to talk about a person with reference to one or another system of social relations. That is, the concepts of "individual" and "individuality", which allow for a wide interpretation, can be applied not only to a person, but also to some living beings and animals with individual characteristics. The concept of "person" is always related to a person as a social being, and only in this sense, it describes a certain person in terms of his place in society, "social image".
When the time comes, it should be emphasized that the conscious-voluntary activity underlying rational activity of any person is described. Also, a person manifests himself as a person by creating new material and spiritual wealth and consistently realizing his creative potential.
Modern science distinguishes three important factors influencing the formation of personality: heredity, cultural environment and living conditions. As a result of the interaction of these factors, a person as a person acquires a set of unique characteristics: relevant needs, interests, clients, abilities, goals, objectives, spirituality, and so on. These unique individual characteristics of a person are mainly formed under the influence of social and cultural conditions in the environment in which he lives, which allows us to note that society plays a very important role in the formation and development of a person. At the same time, a person can be formed and mature according to generally accepted norms or contrary to them. In this sense, it is possible to talk about both positive and negative people.
At present, most scientists and philosophers associate the positive processes of human evolution and the possibilities of social change with the humanization of social relations, universal norms taking a firm place in people's minds. In this, a person throughout his life, on the one hand, tries to achieve the goals he has set for himself, and on the other hand - feels the influence of the social and natural environment that surrounds him, as a whole phenomenon, continuous and gradual. development should be taken into account. In other words, in the process of his development, he is always considered both a subject and an object, which determines the emergence of another important philosophical problem related to the realization of his potential and the search for the meaning of life.
The meaning of life and the task of man. We can encounter the ideas that a person should remember the brevity of life, observe its twilight, think about the valuelessness of human life, and not forget that death is a truth, in the first stage of the formation process of the science of philosophy, both in the Western philosophical tradition and in Eastern philosophy. . During the more than two and a half thousand years that have passed since then, almost no changes have occurred in this regard, because, as before, the life path of a human being is limited by the dates of birth and death. Also, the first date is always certain and clear, while the second date remains abstract until the last seconds of a person's life.
For this reason, the problem of the meaning of life sooner or later confronts every person and asks questions that cannot be answered clearly and concisely. "Why am I living in this world?" a person asks himself, and if he does not answer this question himself, if he does not give a certain meaning to his life, then no one will ever do this work for him. begins to understand with his teeth. In the face of eternity, in the face of death, everyone is ultimately alone with himself.
Of course, in society, a person does not feel alone at this level, but, according to existentialists, this is the case when a person knows that others have their own lives, and they also have their own ideas about the meaning of their lives and their own tasks. continues until he realizes that he is faced with the need to solve personal problems independently.
From this arises the problem of loneliness in the philosophy of existentialism. In fact, this problem is one of the main problems in the analysis of human existence in philosophical anthropology.
Stages of leaving life. As a biological being, every human being is doomed to die. This was well understood by ancient thinkers. In particular, when one of his opponents said: "Thirty tyrants condemned you to death", Socrates replied: "Nature condemned them to death". But man as a social being is also doomed to death.
Modern science distinguishes four stages of the dying process. These stages are caused by irreversible biological changes that occur in the body and characterize its aging.
In particular, from the age of 25, and especially after the age of 45, tens of thousands of nerve cells (neurons), which were "collected" before birth and are never renewed, die every day. But the number of such cells in the cerebral cortex reaches 40 billion, and therefore "this does not cause serious consequences for the aging normal brain, because tens of billions of neurons continue to function normally"1.
In practice, a person's departure from life begins when social death occurs, characterized by the fact that he withdraws from people and withdraws from society. Chronic drug use, alcoholism, alcoholism, and constant dissatisfaction with his life indicate social death. Then comes spiritual death, in which a person realizes that life is over and death is inevitable, and that he has not achieved anything during his lifetime. When the brain dies, the activity of the brain stops completely, control of various functions of the body ceases. This process ends with physiological death. In this case, all the functions that characterize a person as a living organism stop.
Conclusions. A certain person may not realize the above-mentioned stages of the end of his life (in most cases, this is the case), but as he moves forward on the path of life, his actions on the question of why I live in this world , responds with actions. If a person has not yet fully understood them, solving this task is equally difficult for a person who is just choosing his life path, and for a person who is looking back and summarizing his life in the evening of his life. will remain.
Man is by nature doomed to die, but, realizing this, he does not want to admit that everything about him is concentrated in a short period of time, limited by the dates of his birth and death. . It is explained by this fact that he tries to connect his fate with important social goals and spiritual awakening.
Another way is offered by religion. Here, depending on one or another belief, answers to the question of the meaning of life and the achievement of personal immortality are given, which are different in form, but very similar in content. They mainly talk about the fact that the other world is the real world, that the work done in this world will be given real value in that world, and so on.
Another possibility is to dedicate one's life in this world to the service of people, goodness, truth and justice. In this way, a person gets the opportunity to remain in the memory of future generations with his works, ideas and deeds.
Which of these paths a person chooses is up to him. He may choose a completely different path in his life than the one shown here. But sooner or later, it is inevitable that every person will reflect on the rightness or wrongness of the path he has chosen in life.
Practical practical texts
Philosophical anthropology, man, life, coincidence, anomaly, emergence of man on Earth, human spirituality, multidimensionality of man, cosmocentrism, theocentrism, sociocentrism, anthropocentrism, biospherocentrism, existentialism, biosocial nature of man, dualism in understanding man and monism, concepts of biologization, concepts of sociologization, the essence of a person, the meaning of life, leaving life, the task of a person.
Additional and explanatory texts
Questions and tasks for independent work