In Pursuit of Something ‘Essential’ about Man: Heidegger and Philosophical Anthropology

Abstract

The question of the degree to which Heidegger can be counted as an anthropological thinker is a controversial one. Throughout his corpus, Heidegger expresses concern with the fundamental character and destiny of human existence, but does the possession of such a concern situate Heidegger within the history of the German philosophical-anthropological tradition? Heidegger’s interest in the human appears to circumnavigate many of the issues and questions that occupy this tradition. For instance, Heidegger frequently appears to be more concerned with what the articulation of the question of what it means to be human itself says about human existence, than with seeking a positive definition of the human as a particular living species. Nevertheless, through his interrogation of the human as a being that possesses the capacity to articulate this question, Heidegger does develop an understanding of human existence that could be said to approximate a philosophical anthropology.