The significance of negative philosophical anthropology and its human types in modern times

Philosophy

Abstract

The article highlights the significance of negative anthropology for the social and human sciences. It explores the reasons behind its emergence and develops a definition of the concept as a set of ideas focusing on those human characteristics that are considered negative in the classical and essential sense. It is emphasized that negative anthropology is not identical to apophatic anthropology, which focuses on the fundamental unknowability of the human essence. On the contrary, negative anthropology has an empirical dimension and captures real, historically and culturally determined human states that have traditionally fallen outside the purview of positive anthropology. The article demonstrates the importance of its typologies, which are linked to the human lifeworld, particularly in recent decades. The study constructs a chronology of types: from the nervous, melancholic, and outdated person to homo lassus (defessus). This typology, however, is not limited to a description of alienation, but encompasses a wide range of negative modes of existence, each with its own historical prerequisites and foundations, as demonstrated by the author’s insights, analysis, and reflection on the works of J. Radkau, G. Anders, K. Johannisson, J. Vigarello, Byung-Chul Han, V. V. Varava, G. Agamben, and others. In addition to self-disappointment, a dangerous tendency is revealed, defined as taedium vitae, which threatens to develop into a fatigue of being human, potentially resulting in self-overcoming (so-called transhumanist tendencies). Furthermore, the author notes an urgent need for the emergence of a culture of leisure, idleness, peace, and so-called not-potency. The question arises: “Is it necessary to flee fatigue?” Such escapism is an escape from one of our aspects, which should not be excluded from the life of a human being. By isolating fatigue as a separate domain, we seem to fragment our existence, which should not degenerate into a taedium vitae, but should instead be connected to a favorite activity, leisure, and become a signal for proper rest. The human types identified by negative anthropology are the result of an understanding of human existence over recent decades in a transforming world, with an eye toward the future. The task of other social and human sciences is to work with particular manifestations of these specific phenomena, with modern language (especially psychological categorizations) being an example of that as it has developed terms that describe the situation of homo lassus.