Section outline

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    Philosophical Anthropology

    KFI/NFAN

    3 ECTS Credits

    Tomáš Machula

     

    The course focused on the philosophical reflection of human beings and related topics as a person, mind (soul) and body, cognition and action.

    The student will have good knowledge about important views on the human being as a person. He/she will be able to critically evaluate and consider them. He/she also will acquire basic information about concepts of person and society that have even nowadays very important consequences in ethics or politics.

     

    Lectures


    1. PERSON – ethical importance of "person"; ontological concept

    2. PERSON – psychological concept; the sociological concept of the person

    3. PERSON – critical reflection

    4. SOUL AND BODY – naturalistic reductionism; non-reductive concepts

    5. SOUL AND BODY – the dualism of principles; substantial dualism

    6. SOUL AND BODY – critical reflection

    7. SENSITIVE AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE – cognitive and appetitive powers; sensual knowledge; intellectual knowledge

    8. SENSITIVE AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE – emotions; will

    9. FREEDOM – libertarianism; strict determinism

    10. FREEDOM – compatibilism; agent causation; two concepts of freedom

    11. ANIMAL – rational animal; a social animal

    12. ANIMAL – animal the maker; playing animal; mere animal

     

    Literature

    Basic

    Lombo, J. A., Russo, F., Philosophical Anthropology. An Introduction, Illinois 2007.

    The book presents the traditional set of topics that are connected with philosophical anthropology. Almost all important questions are presented and discussed in detail, including person, soul and body, cognitive and appetitive powers etc. It is the basic literature for all students of this subject.

    Clarke, N. W., Person and Being, Marquette 1993.

    The book is focused strictly on the concept of person. According to Clarke, there must be some fundamental basis in metaphysics that enables the development of the concept of a person meaningfully and intelligible. The philosophical approach of this book is inspired by Aquinas metaphysics and it is open to some modern and contemporary inspirations of various personalist philosophies.

    Neenan, M. A., The Nature of Human Soul, Cluny 2017.

    The short book deals with the powers of human soul. It is a good introduction to the topic.

     

     

    Additional

    Eberl, J., The Nature of Human Persons, Notre Dame 2020.

    The book is focused on anthropology and bioethics so that it is especially the first half of the book that is important for this topic. It is important for its deep discussions of the body-mind problem. The materialist, hylomorphic and substance dualism solutions are extensively treated and critically discussed.

    Agassi, J., Towards a Rational Philosophical Anthropology, Hague 1977.

    The book presents very interesting introduction to several dimensions of humanity, e.g. scientist view of human being as mere machine, understanding human being as an animal, development of classical Greek definitions of human being as a rational and social being and finally, religious view of human being as an image of God.

    Parfit, D., Reasons and Persons, Oxford 1984.

    Parfit is one of the classics. The book is a very  interesting reading for an advanced reader who is interested especially in the problem of personal identity.