Reviving Philosophical Anthropology for the Age of Extinction

ABSTRACT: This article argues that the discipline of Philosophical Anthropology is directly relevant for comprehending the present human condition, especially regarding our collective ecological predicament and the consequences of climate change. By centralizing relations, focusing on lived experience at various levels, and adopting an interdisciplinary approach, Philosophical Anthropology provides powerful conceptual instruments for making sense of human–biosphere relations. Its focus on explaining the human condition in an antireductionist fashion, emphasizing biological and chemical processes and multiple lifeforms, is a valuable approach. These approaches are critically examined with refers to the works of Scheler, Gehlen, and Plessner, combined with a discussion of the concept of responsivity. This theoretical foundation resonates with current trends in anthropology, environmental philosophy, 4E cognition, and ecocriticism, allowing for greater appreciation of the embeddedness of organisms and the agency of non-human actors, as well as of emotional responses such as eco-anxiety and solastalgia. By integrating results from philosophy, anthropology, the exact sciences, and life sciences, a reinvigorated PA could well provide the conceptual and methodological foundation for a comprehensive theory of the Age of Extinction.