The Human Situation A Philosophical Anthropology [Paperback]

"This introductory outline of philosophical anthropology sketches a dialectical progression of solutions to the problem of what it is to be human. Seeking to provide a unification of the concept of human existence, Haeffner sequentially thematizes with prudence the problems of subjectivity, language, sociality, historicity, mind-body relation, consciousness, and freedom of the will."
--Choice

Gerd Haeffneris emeritus professor of philosophical anthropology and the history of philosophy at Hochschule für Philosophie, Munich. He is the author ofHeideggers Begriff der Metaphysik.
 
Eric Watkins is professor of philosophy at University of California, San Diego.
 

Since the beginning of conscious thougth the human animal has questioned the meaning of its existence. Although qualified in numerous ways by time and circumstance, the question has remained. In modern times it has assumed an unusual urgency due to the disintegration of self-understanding caused in part by the Industrial Revolution and the destruction and degradation of this century’s wars. We ask again, “What is the nature of human life?” “What qualifies as a meaningful life?” and “How shall we come to understand ourselves in the future?”

Using the resources of anthropology, biological research, ad philosophy to plumb the essence of humanity,The Human Situationrenews this quest for understanding. Gerh Haeffner leads the reader through an examination of the different levels of human consciousness, beginning with the techniques of biology and the human sciences. Through this approach the reader is progressively made aware of the central question of “What is it to be human?” and is led to an understanding of the unity of human life, the central realities of conscience and freedom, and finally the question of the meaning of life. Other considerations include the basl�f