The Elementary Anthropology of Arnold Gehlen

Abstract

Of a historical and comparative character, this article's basic aim is to reconstruct the main principles of the somewhat forgotten philosophical anthropology of Arnold Gehlen. Some of the principles were derived from the works of J. G. Herder (man as Mängelwesen), F. Nietzsche (man as nicht festgestellte Tier), and M. Scheler (man's "openness" to the world). The majority of the proposed theses, however, were Gehlen's own (the idea of "unburdening", man as Kulturwesen, tradition as a life-stabilising force). Apart from its strengths, Gehlen's anthropology has some weaknesses (biologistic metaphysics, attaching excessive significance to the outdated conception of "a deficient being", blurring the boundaries between the philosophical method and the scientific method). They are the subject of discussions carried out both by scientists conducting empirical research on man and by experts on the philosophy of man, as well as being the subject of my own interest.