Homo Sapiens, A Problematic Species An Essay in Philosophical Anthropology [Paperback]

This book evaluates the Western conception of man. After having examined primitive thought in which Nature comprises everything that exists, including man, the author explains why in Western thought man is usually not only different from Nature, but opposed to it, which may have grave consequences to Natures fate.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.PrefacePart I. Before PhilosophyChapter 1. The psychology of mythical thoughtChapter 2. The human individual in primitive thoughtChapter 3. The conflict between primitive ways of thinking and Aristotelian logicPart II. Philosophers on the Subject of Man.A Concise Historical OverviewGeneral IntroductionChapter 4. AntiquityChapter 5. The Church Fathers and the philosophers of the Middle Ages: theology and philosophy, a compromiseChapter 6. Rationalism versus EmpiricismChapter 7. Idealism and MarxismChapter 8. A complete break with Western traditionChapter 9. The twentieth century: more of the sameBibliographyIndex of NamesMia Gosselin is professor emeritus of the Free University Brussels (VUB). Having acquired a thorough knowledge of the history of philosophy, she later specialized in epistemology and founded the Center of Empirical Epistemology of the VUB. She taught philosophical anthropology for more than thirty years.