An Introduction to Philosophical Anthropology

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An Introduction to Philosophical Anthropology

• Nathan Harter

Jepson School Summer Institute for Leadership and
the Liberal Arts, May 2008
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• Notes toward a book chapter

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Those questions animating us in Leadership
Studies often depend on the answer to prior
questions we rarely think to ask.

• Among those prior questions is the following
• What does it mean to be human?

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Conceptual Frameworks

• We all study, teach, and practice leadership from
  within certain conceptual frameworks. Not all of
  them are conscious. Not all of them are clear,
  coherent, or consistent with other beliefs we
  accept as true. Isaiah Berlin promised that
  philosophy would unearth and critique these
  conceptual frameworks.

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Sciences do treat the question

• Some such as biology are too broad
• Some such as economics are too narrow
• But philosophy did not, like Goldilocks, seek an
  intermediate science
• Rather philosophical anthropology seeks to
  assemble and possibly integrate all findings
• To reflect the full amplitude of our being

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Science must exclude some phenomena in order to
examine other phenomena

• Yet to rely on only some of the available
  information and claim that there is nothing more
  is known as reductionism

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Is there an grand unified theory?

• Or should we adopt what William James referred to
  as a pluralistic mindset?

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Critics already exist

• They argue that the literature excludes relevant
  information
• Certain types of people (e.g. women)
• Certain aspects of people (e.g. spirituality)
• Certain social contexts (e.g. organizational
  culture)
• Certain pursuits (e.g. business)

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How we treat each other depends on how we regard
each other. (Trigg, 1999)
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• Three two-dimensional frameworks

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One Way to Organize the FieldA Static Model
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Another Way to ClassifyDynamic Models
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• The schema is not itself a dynamic model.
• It classifies dynamic models.

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Dialectics
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Democracy (e.g. Dewey)
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Yet Another Way to ClassifyModels of the Human
Ideal
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We have unique callings, though none is
called to lead
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Christianity
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Frameworks for Conceptual Frameworks

• Make these frameworks explicit
• In ones classroom
• In ones writings
• In actual practice
• Classify these frameworks
• Critique them
• Conform to lived experience?
• Internally coherent?
• Consistent with other beliefs?
• Avoid reductionism

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• For comment, please e-mail nharter_at_purdue.edu

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Selected References