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By reading classical philosophical texts, the participants shall become acquainted with basic questions and problems of philosophical anthropology. They will learn how to properly read philosophical texts and to critically evaluate them. Ideally, they will be able to develop a personal stance in philosophical anthropology and to argumentatively defend it.

Philosophical anthropology is the philosophical reflexion on man, i.e. the philosophical reflexion on ourselves. What is man? What are the essential characteristics of human beings? What is the difference between human beings and other animals? Do the empirical sciences suffice in order to develop a proper conception of the human being? In addressing these and other questions we are going to read texts written by Plato, Aristoteles, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, Marx, Feuerbach, Schopenhauer, Scheler, Gehlen, Plessner, Becker and other classics.

The course is designed as a reading seminar. There will be brief initial inputs given by the lecturer. Each student will deliver a presentation followed by an instructed discussion.

Presentation (ca. 30 min) and a written paper. Students are expected to actively participate in the seminar and to read the texts.

Hans Dierkes (Hg.), Philosophische Anthropologie. Texte und Materialen für den Unterricht (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1988). – This booklet will be used intensivly in the course. Every student should have his or her own copy!
Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death (New York: Free Press Paperback, 1997).

Optionally:
Kurt Salamun, Wie soll der Mensch sein? Philosophische Ideale vom "wahren" Menschen von Karl Marx bis Karl Popper (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012).

Dierke's "Philosophische Anthropologie" and Salamun's "Wie soll der Mensch sein" should be available at the Studia in Universitätsstraße (MCI building).

For Bachelor's Programme in  Philosophy at the Catholic Theology Faculty (C 033 194): positive completion of compulsory modules 2 and 3.