
Examine what makes us human through key concepts in western philosophy, via philosophical anthropology rooted in anthropos and logos. Navigate a flexible, concept-driven course with lectures, readings, and quizzes.
Explore how reality, perception, and imagination shape human experience, from lifeworld and perceptual objects to imagination's analogical materials, with Husserl and Sartre as guides.
Explore how emotions shape human values, examine a phenomenological view of emotion, and learn Sartre’s idea of emotions transforming the world into captivation or despair.
Explore how nature, instinct, and culture shape human freedom, from pre-reflective consciousness to reflective choice, and examine determinism, compatibilism, and libertarian limits.
Explore how space and time relate to the lived body in phenomenology, contrasting objective space-time with subjective time, and trace ideas from Kant, Bergson, Husserl, and Zeno.
Examine what thinking is across mind processes, from explicit to intuitive, and trace how knowledge, judgment, reflection, reason, and logic drive decisions, action, and self-understanding.
Explore intersubjectivity, language, and society through phenomenology, language philosophy, and social theory, tracing how Descartes, Husserl, and Heidegger frame our understanding of others and individuality.
Delve into ethics as moral philosophy, tracing virtue, deontology, and utilitarianism, and connect these ideas to contemporary politics, feminism, environment, and intersectionality for engaged citizenship.
Explore aesthetics and art as core human domains, surveying theories of taste, Kant and the sublime, Sartre, Kandinsky, philosophy, and art’s role in imagination, ethics, and meanings.
Explore metaphysics, nature, and becoming as the foundational principles of reality. Examine ontology and the varieties of being—from being in itself to being for others—through key thinkers like Sartre and Heidegger.
Explores the philosophy of God and religion, from Augustine and Aquinas to Spinoza and Nietzsche, examining theism, atheism, nihilism, existentialism, secularism, and nature as ultimate principle.
Explore the state of philosophical anthropology and its future, examining sex, gender and identity, race and oppression, environment, and technology through an intersectional lens.
This course introduces the exciting theoretical field of philosophical anthropology, namely the study of human being through concepts. It is divided into 12 lectures (listed below); after a free introduction each one then focuses on a key concept or cluster thereof. It takes a thematic approach and draws on some of the most important and well-known theories from the history of Western philosophy, and it also includes the tutors own take and formulation on a number of important issues. Short and selective lectures introduce one into each idea where the main points and angles presently clearly and concisely. It is designed to get you thinking about your own humanity, as well as those of others, and it can be used as a good prelude to further study on this fascinating topic. Each lecture comes with a list for further reading and a quiz.
Lecture 1. Introduction
Lecture 2. Reality, Perception and Imagination
Lecture 3. Emotions and Values
Lecture 4. Freedom
Lecture 5. Space, Time and the Body
Lecture 6. Thinking and the Mind
Lecture 7. Intersubjectivity, Language and Society
Lecture 8. Ethics and Politics
Lecture 9. Aesthetics and Art
Lecture 10. Nature, Being and Metaphysics
Lecture 11. God and Religion
Lecture 12. Going Forward: Sex, Race, Environment and Technology
The lecture style is academic, with clarity and concision top priorities. It aims to give an overall picture of the main philosophical concepts when considering human being, and it should be these very that captivate and enchant. I hope you will try the introduction and enjoy the course!