philosophical anthropology

The subject of Scheler's metaphysics is man, in other words, meta-anthropology. In this type of anthropology, by reflecting on the nature of man and presenting a comprehensive picture of it, which includes various aspects including natural, rational and emotional, emotions are emphasized as prior elements in the creation of values, in fact, emotions are a way to understand Values are known. From Scheler's point of view, values are not a posteriori; That is, they are not taken from foreign experiences; Rather, they are known as prior elements of emotion, so from his point of view, we have knowledge with prior characteristics that are related to the field of emotions. It can be said that with this point of view, Scheler is in front of philosophers like Kant; Because according to Kant, human emotions cannot have prior elements; In this article, after explaining metaphysical knowledge as one of the three types of knowledge from Scheler's point of view, the nature of man and the epistemological role of emotions as prior elements in the creation of values are explained. In this research, through documentary method, content analysis and descriptive method, we plan and examine Scheler's view on moral values and its relationship with emotions. Our claim is that based on Scheler's point of view, morality is formed not based on purely formal and rational values, but based on emotions and feelings.

It can be acknowledged by thinkers, reformers, and religious leaders that it would be essential to develop and institutionalize admirable social traits, especially work conscience. Undoubtedly, an important factor of the happiness, improvement, and civilization of every society is that people living in the society possess admirable social traits. In spite of the fact that some societies are deprived of the religious doctrines of Islam (and other heavenly religions) they have considerably succeeded in developing and institutionalizing certain socially admirable traits. From the philosophical and religious standpoints, all people have God-given nature with respect to knowledge, power, and tendency, and are disposed to be morally good. However, this disposition is not sufficient to actually have socially good traits, and many factors are required to actualize it. In this paper, using a descriptive analytic method, I address the fact that to fulfill the innate potentials of social moral traits, three elements are extremely influential: (a) effective scientific management, (b) education based on realistic and precise philosophical anthropology, and (c) to strengthen the bedrock of and to remedy the defects of religious life.

Helmuth Plessner, beside Max Scheler and Arnold Gehlen, is known as one of the great founders of new philosophical anthropology movement. From among new anthropological theories, however, perhaps none has recently come to the center of attention and begun to flourish more than Plessner’s, not only in the field of philosophical anthropology, but also in science and technology. The ground for such a so-called “Plessner Renaissance” shall be immediately known in this article, once the special place Plessner’s theory occupies in both the prominent contemporary explanatory paradigms, in general, and philosophical-anthropological theories, in particular, is specified. In doing so, Plessner’s philosophical contribution is determined as: A non-reductive naturalistic explanatory paradigm as a middle ground between new Darwinism, social-cultural-historical constructivism, and naive transcendentalism. A phenomenological-hermeneutical account of the biological life, in general. A biological-based transformational philosophical anthropology, in particular. The focus of the present article is on Plessner’s contribution to the philosophy of biology as well as philosophical anthropology.

Max Scheler while examining the relationship between human cognition and social contexts along with real and concrete matters, has also considered the ideal elements and values ​​in his analysis and among these, one of his main goals in combining sociological topics with philosophical themes have been to achieve a comprehensive knowledge of man. Despite acknowledging the influence of social factors, Scheler considers the principle of thought to be an independent category that cannot be reduced entirely to the external factors. This is an important point of Scheler, because, he does not make the development of knowledge dependent only on the influence of historical and social conditions, but also on human characteristics. In his view, in a comprehensive view of man, in addition to reason, his emotional and value aspects should also be considered. In this paper, by analyzing Scheler’s phenomenological approach, including in the field of ethics, tries to show how he, by combining different fields, has gone beyond the usual dichotomies and developed the sociology of knowledge. The findings of this process indicate that the whole of Scheler’s intellectual project is an attempt to integrate and accompany areas of human knowledge that at first seems contradictory and cannot be summed up, but with a comprehensive view of man and society.

Philosophical anthropology with reflection on human nature is one of the special fields of interest of Max Scheler. Influenced by idealism, philosophy of life, and Christianity, his phenomenological approach seeks to provide a comprehensive picture of man. To this end, Scheler pays attention to the real and experiential aspects of man along with his spiritual values ​​and by acknowledging their independence from each other and at the same time their interaction and connection. Influenced by the crisis of his time, Max Scheler, on the one hand, turned his attention to the neglected aspects of man, including emotions and feelings, especially love and hate, and on the other hand, while trying to provide a certain knowledge about man by avoiding essentialism, related matters. Examines human beings from a phenomenological point of view and based on how they are manifested. At the same time, while having philosophical affiliations, he also pays special attention to concrete and real human issues based on sociological concerns. Moreover, Scheler places great value on human diagnosis and of course he argues that man cannot be identified objectively and should only be approached on the basis of a phenomenological approach.

In early 20th century, a widespread tendency toward a philosophical anthropology was dominant over the intellectual space in Germany, and it was so deep and extensive in its influence that phenomenology had to react and take a stance against it. This initial stance appeared be an essential conflict of a sort, so that Blumenberg coined the term “anthropological ban” regarding Husserl’s and Heidegger’s Phenomenologies. In this paper, we have tried to illustrate that such a confliction is neither essential nor absolute, meaning that it is quite legitimate to talk about a philosophical anthropology of a sort based on Husserl’s and Heidegger’s Phenomenologies. Thus, the plot and general characteristics of such a phenomenological anthropology, in terms of Heidegger's existential analysis of Dasein as a Fundamental ontology in his Sein und Zeit, has been depicted, and its fundamentally different anthropological pattern comparing with that of a traditional anthropology has also been demonstrated.

Communitarianism is one of the main critics of moral-political theory of liberalism. According to communitarians, liberalism presupposes an image of human identity which does not do justice to the collective ties between human being. It ignores altruist duties and common loyalties to traditional, historical values by inappropriately insisting on priority of justice from an individualist point of view, culminating in advent of ignoble, egoist characters unfamiliar with collective values. In this essay, firstly, I would elaborate these critiques and then try to answer them from Richard Rorty's point of view. Though Rorty agrees with the communitarian's claim that community makes a constitutive contribution to the identity of individuals, he believes that the pragmatist pole of contemporary liberalism is not subject to the communitarian objections. He tries to show that 20th century political liberalism, best formulated by John Dewy and John Rawls, is immune to communitarian critiques because of its consistency with historicism and ethnocentrism.

The quality of and the course of relation between human rights and anthropological sciences will be analyzed in this article. According to the different approaches and methods of anthropology, this knowledge is divided into four branches: religious, philosophical, mystical and experimental. The aims of this research are: 1. the analysis of the relation between human rights and those branches, 2. the evaluation of their role in defining and codifying those rights. Though human rights are related to all branches of anthropology, the most principal their relation is the relation between human rights and religious and philosophical anthropologies. The rules of human rights are justified according to the teachings of those sciences and these rules have the firm foundations. The experimental anthropology is only considerable in the process of performing human rights, but because of its meta-cultural identity, this branch of anthropology has no so important role on defining and realizing human rights. The mystical anthropology has no public usage.

The purpose of this article is to study the philosophical foundations of the "Sabean Mandaean" religion in order to extract their educational teachings. The research method is analytical and deductive. Using this method, the anthropological, epistemological, and axiological foundations of this religion have been studied. The main sources in this study are the Mandaean holy books, especially Genza Rabba and Drasha ed Yaḥya.
Sabean Mandaean is a religious ethnic living peacefully alongside of Karoun, Dejla and Fourat rivers. For more than two thousand years ago, due the tension with Jews, they migrated from their main homeland, Palestine, to Mesopotamia and Khouzestan.
The holy Quran has included them three times as the third great Devine Religion. Some of the Islamic scientists know them as ahlol-kitab, namely persons having a holly religious book. Their holiest religion book is Ganza Rabba which means the great treasure and that has written in Mandaean.
In this religion, the existence is superior to the nature that created by God (Hai Rabbi). The most important characteristics of Hai Rabbi are the unity, Greatness and Creativity. The highest level of existence is called Alma Denhora (the world of light or the heaven), and the lowest level is called Alma Dehshokha (a world of darkness or hell). Human is consisted of two parts; Material (peghra or body) and immaterial (Roha and Neshmetha). The truth of human is his Neshmetha or the spirit which is on the contrary to the peghra which is immortal and eternal. The human is dignitary, free and responsible and has a Devine nature.
Knowledge in Mandaean religion is important and has priority over faith and action. Manda, in its origin, means knowledge or cognition. Illiteracy is a great damage. Human being has miscellaneous tools to gain the knowledge. Feeling, heart and wisdom (Mana) are the tools that God has given the human beings. The origin of the Mandaean values is God (Hai Rabbi). And various values came in as commands in the Mandaean holy books, with great emphasis on cleanliness and peace and coexistence.
Education in Mandaean religion is praised and important. Education is a religious duty for everyone and it is not limited to the certain age and it has emphasised for both boys and girls at the same time.
Because there is clean spirit (Neshmetha) in the human, the Mandaean does not recommend physical punishment and inhumane methods in any way in education. In contrary, Doctrine of Mandaean recommends religious teachers to take the appropriate skills and teaching methods for educating people.
The ultimate goal of education in the Mandaean is “Back to the world of light (Alma denhora) to approach to the God (Hai Rabbi)". To achieve this goal ,there are many objectives such as reflection and thinking, Purity , faith and good deeds and self-purification. Also in this article, educational principles have been extracting from their philosophical foundations. The article offered teaching methods based on the Mandaean religion and in the end it was pointed out features of Education Mandaean.

Mullā Sadrā’s Philosophical Anthropology on the basis of philosophical thought is the base of a cultural and ethical system in the Islamic world. Relying on “priority of existence”، “gradation of existence”، “substantial motion” and “the universal and human evolution system”، he could explain the way for human to evolve and being educated up to the dignity of “God’s Caliph” - successor of God. Imam Khomeini as a disciple of Transcendent Philosophy - relying on Quran and Mullā Sadrā’s doctrine and with emphasis on the divine nature of human being - believed that human has the potential of evolution - in the arc of ascent (qaws-i-su''ud) - so that he can reach the dignity of “God’s Caliph”. With such a base of thinking، he decided to create a huge movement in the contemporary world in order to realize Esteem، Glory and respect. Finally، he could accomplish the biggest revolution of the century. From then on، he established some social organizations such as Basij، Housing institution، Help committee، etc. in order to pave the way for social and cultural platforms of developing human’s potentials. The result of all these were self-consciousness and nurturing great men for the Islamic Awakening.

Mullā Sadrā’s philosophical anthropology has been affected by his ontological principles. In Mullā Sadrā’s ontology، there are some essential principles such as principality of existence، unity of existence، simplicity of existence، evolution of existence، formalism، equality of existence and unity as well as equality of existence and attributes of perfection. These principles lead Mullā Sadrā to suggest a number of novel theories on philosophical anthropology، including the following ones: While being unique، soul contains all faculties; there is not any duality between mind and body; soul’s creation is corporeal and his survival is spiritual; human`s identity is from the soul and consequently would not be harmed with bodily changes; soul is the last stage of corporeality and the first one of spirituality; unity of self has various degrees; soul is equivalent to the attributes of perfection. Exploring the effect of Mullā Sadrā’s ontological principles on his philosophical anthropology will show that without taking attention to Mullā Sadrā’s ontological principles، his philosophical anthropology would be misunderstood.

AllamaTabatabai considers the existence of human being a compound of three types of existence parallel with the three realms in the world of creation. In his opinion، man communicates with the sensible world through senses، with the world of imagination through imagination، and with the world of intellect through intellect. However، MullaSadra considers the intellect، soul and nature as the three realms، explaining the world of imagination in the light of soul and its existential intensification in the ascending arc. According to MullaSadra، action is an accidental and subsequent thing. What survives is the soul and soul faculties، and the ideal body having subsistence of issuing on the soul. It is created by the soul based on intentions and actions. Allama does not consider the eschatological bodies subsequent to the soul. In his opinion، after the advent of eschatological world، and the emergence of eschatological bodies، man appears as a reality composed of body and spirit in the eschatological world. Thus spirit in spite of its otherness with the body in this realm of existence، is united with it in a way that it -is- it-ness applies to them. Therefore، concerning faith، MullaSadra attaches principality to the speculative aspect rather than practical. He believes that faith-which is the only origin of happiness and the eternity of the existence of human being، is a matter of knowledge while practice is just a preparing cause. However، Allama has a different view towards man and his deeds، attaching a position as high as speculation to practice. He holds that the happiness of human being lies in both speculation and practice. He considers faith originating from knowledge and practice giving practice a principal role. Secluding practice from the field of the definition of faith، and presenting the role of human inclinations in this regard، he determines the significance of practice in this field in a delicate way.