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The following text is a handout that I wrote for the Philosophical Anthropology section my OAC philosophy class.
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Philosophical Anthropology is a unique area of inquiry in that we ourselves are that which is being asked about. The reality that we are seeking to understand is one that we participate in, namely, human-being. I always already am that which is in question here. In this sense, philosophical anthropology is a subjective inquiry in that it is the search for self-understanding, and involves inescapably the task of self-appropriation. The Socratic maxim, "know-thyself" is its guiding thread. This is not to say that there is not an objective side to what Philosophical Athropology is all about. To be sure, it also involves the systematic attempt to understand what a human being is, as philosophy it is the search for ordered speech about what counts as 'human nature'. Some philosophers prefer to avoid terms like, 'human being' and 'human nature' when seeking to map this region of inquiry.Such terms are often loaded down with conceptual baggage or hidden philosophical assumptions that can prevent us from seeing for ourselves the basic shape of the human condition, and may prevent us from being able to delineate it without undue bias. Philosophical Anthropology is also about the attempt to make sense of the discourse of others about what it means to be human, to be able to critically examine the tacit or explicit assumptions about what it means to be a human being that permeate the diverse speech of the world around us in anything from political rhetoric, advertising, educational reform, our relationship to the environment, medicine, psychology, sociology, urban planning, theology, etc. Each one of these areas is packed full of often competing claims about human nature and what counts as the "good" for human beings as such. The study of "Philosophical Anthropology" will better prepare us to engage in an informed dialogue with the world around us. A thorough grounding in a sufficiently adequate philosophical anthropology will also help us to stand against the tide of anti-human ideologies that too often prevail in the culture of death that surrounds us.
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