Villare, Angel Florence V.

PHIN102.N1Ar

CHAPTER 1

Philosophical Anthropology, Or the Philosophy of Man

In the most general sense, anthropology is a holistic approach that studies man or human
beings as a whole and finds that human beings are faced with complications. As there are different
aspects covered in anthropology, each has its own area of study and specialization, which aims
to produce knowledge about human beings in various fields. And it is divided into multiple
disciplines, which include cultural, psychological, social, and ethnological analysis. Consequently,
anthropologists have used different approaches in every scientific discipline that concerns itself
with just one aspect in order to examine human existence. However, having these branches
concerning the human person or identifying their objective, each cannot explain or comprehend
man in all his richness and complexity, or what they are, as they are just scientific-experimental
analyses, which we cannot account for the person in himself

As we go further, we will see the relationship of philosophical anthropology with other

areas of philosophy. To start with, ethics necessitates a certain level of philosophical anthropology
as well as a clear understanding of what it means to be human. It holds that man has been
liberated. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any reason to think of their obligations, accountability, and
other such things. And it also emphasizes a specific quality of the human person. Secondly,
metaphysics is also a branch of philosophy that deals with the fundamental truths of reality. It
utilizes concepts such as power, action, matter, nature, and the person. In addition to that,
philosophical anthropology has a relationship with other areas of knowledge that also deal with
how people behave, how societies are constructed, and how open they are to transcendence.
This includes political philosophy, sociological philosophy, the philosophy of culture and art, and
the philosophy of religion. Finally, philosophical anthropology is important in theology because it
contributes significantly to understanding the revealed truth in theological processes. With this,
we can now conclude that philosophical anthropology has significant relationships with various
disciplines mentioned above, which study human beings from a philosophical perspective.

In the method of philosophical anthropology, there are a few approaches that are being
used. First, the analytical method, wherein each phenomenon or aspect of the person is examined
individually, is still not sufficient because even if it offered the benefit of producing accurate results,
it might have the unintended consequence of breaking down the person into a set of aspects that
would be challenging to put back together into a unitary whole. Secondly, the synthetical method,
which examines the person as a whole entity, is still not sufficient because it might give you a
better understanding of the whole, yet this might likewise ignore the uniqueness of the different
human aspects. Thus, in philosophical anthropology, we must adopt an approach that views the
human being as a "system" whose components work closely together. These approaches are the
analytical-inductive and synthetical-deductive aspects, wherein it aims to apply the concepts to
the phenomena and includes information emerging therefrom. In addition to that, in philosophical
anthropology, humans are being considered but they are not really the subject of the study
because there is what we call "pre-comprehension," where humans already know what he or she
was and what they were. So, reflection upon the human being is linked to self-comprehension,
which can provide a strong foundation for philosophical study.

Upon reading the materials, I have come up with the idea that philosophy complements
anthropology as an academic discipline and a life process tool in such a way that they are related
to each other. We know that anthropology studies human nature. And so, philosophy is the core
subject for studying anthropology. And for me, these two have the same function, which is to
discover. We can explore the nature of humans through philosophical reflections and also with
different philosophical theories. Furthermore, anthropology appears to be a branch of philosophy
because humans have been studied in philosophical science under various names and their
theories and concepts are derived from philosophy. To summarize, philosophy complements
anthropology by providing the foundation or substantial information for studying humans, their
cultures, and their respective environments.