The phenomenological tradition has always entertained a complex and problematic relation with the notions of humanity, philosophical anthropology, and the human sciences. Husserl’s science of transcendental subjectivity rejects all forms of anthropologism and considers philosophy revolving around the notion of humanity as the result of the inability to overcome the natural attitude. Interpreting phenomenology as a contribution to the understanding humanity, thus, appears to fail to acknowledge that its real theme is the sense of being of the totality of the world, including but not reducible to humanity. Yet, by virtue of the phenomenological elucidation of this sense, humanity appears as the self-objectivation of transcendental subjectivity and as the necessary focal point of the life-world, i.e., of the horizon of all theoretical, practical and axiological accomplishments. In this way, phenomenology acquired from the beginning an intimate relation with the human sciences. Concepts such as humanity and humanism entertain a complex relation with Heidegger’s reflection too. On the one hand, in his confrontation with Cassirer, he insisted that the analyses contained in Being and Time cannot be considered as a contribution to a philosophical anthropology, and in the Letter of Humanism he famously rejected Sartre’s concept of humanism as metaphysical. On the other hand, Heidegger proclaimed that the “essence” of human being must be understood on the ground of its ek-sistence, whereby to be human means to be there in the clearing of being, and to be open to being through language. Authors such as Alfred Schütz, Hannah Arendt, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Hans Blumenberg have taken up the rich legacy of these reflections in close relation to the human sciences. Furthermore, recent years have seen a renewed interest in the phenomenological approach among a number of working anthropologists and ethnologists, who, in their own empirical analyses, draw on the descriptive resources offered by Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty.
In a time in which various forms of post-humanism and trans-humanism exert a growing influence on our culture, we believe that the phenomenological tradition offers vital critical resources for a radical interrogation on the very notion of humanity.
The seminars of the School will address different aspects of this broad theme. No previous background in phenomenology is required. Some advanced students will be encouraged to give a personal contribution to the School’s activities.