Workshop: Being Human: New Perspectives On Classical German Anthropologies (Como, July 21-24 2022)

In the early nineteenth century, not only in Germany, “anthropology” was the name for a heterogeneous set of approaches that attempted to answer the question, “What does it mean to be human?” Anthropology, however, was not the name for a codified discipline, but rather for a collection of variegated research programs.

On the one hand, under the impetus of new discoveries in scientific fields such as physiology, empirical psychology, comparative anatomy – but also geography – the traditional image of man was gradually falling into a crisis. Space was opening up for the empirical study of the human being and for its naturalization. On the other hand, some philosophers such as Kant insisted that philosophy has a unique contribution to make to the anthropological project and opposed the attempt to deliver the question of man entirely into the hands of scientists. Post-Kantian anthropology is all the more interesting because it must theoretically reckon with these two trends and the questions they raise, many of which are still at the heart of the current philosophical landscape.

Starting from this background, the event aims to shed light on some fundamental texts of what we want to call “classical German anthropology”, re-evaluating their potential for today’s debate