To the Problem of the Categorical Definition of Humanity in Philosophy and Science

Abstract

The traditional problem of an extremely broad definition of a humanity, which could encompass the entire variety of socio-historical modes of human existence and its worldview reflections, nowadays supplements its original moral and ethical content with a number of scientific and practical aspects, requiring their clarification and coordination. Against the background of the classical «cognitive» paradigm of Homo sapiens, the latest definitions of man not only indicate a significant disciplinary disunity of modern anthropology (physical, cultural, social, linguistic, etc.), but also reveal the heterogeneity of the connotations of the category of man itself with auxiliary ones (nature, essence, soul, creativity, communication, etc.), which are used in understanding humanity as his subject or predicate and reveal conceptual and historical variability.

This article aims to establish the categorical structure of human understanding and the reasons for its permanent revision in the past and incompatible theoretical definitions in our time. Based on the material of the history of philosophy, the historical circumstances, main directions and categorical features of the leading philosophical definitions of humanity are clarified, the relationship between basic anthropological categories and their syntactic constructions with specific scientific ones is analyzed, the main reductionist positions in the definition of humanity and methodological prospects for overcoming them are established.

The results of the research reveal the theological foundations of the classical metaphysical reconciliation of the categories of nature and human essence, as well as natural scientific and philosophical ways of compensation for their subsequent crisis. The heuristic nature of the category of (self)identity for the synthesis of anthropological concepts of humanity prone to reductionism or relativism, similar to the synthesis of classical and non-classical ideas about personality in psychology, is assessed. Based on an analysis of the content of the latest anthropological definitions, the perspective of the category of personality is outlined as an integrator of the components of the definition of a humanity and a counterweight to postmodernist methodological guidelines that associate the categorical constructions of anthropology with repressive forms of identification of modern person.

The results of the study can serve as a model for ensuring a generally meaningful interpretation of empirical provisions and the interaction of methodological aspects and levels of scientific research into humans and humanitarian phenomena.