Herder

Herder is very much a thinker for our time. Instead of approaching facets of human existence in an isolated fashion, he brings the entire human being into focus by tracing its connections with the natural, cultural, and historical world. Through this integrated approach, Herder’s anthropology develops a holistic understanding of the human sphere in relation to our existence as natural creatures who are crucially marked by the fact that we have language and thought, and understand and express meaning in our actions. By illuminating these contextual dimensions of human existence, Herder’s anthropology resonates with many demands and needs arising today, when national and cultural interests—and conflicts—take on new, and old, forms in the wake of unprecedented global challenges. The first part of the volume examines the various dimensions of Herder’s philosophical understanding of human nature through which he sought methodologically to delineate a genuinely anthropological philosophy. This includes his critique of traditional metaphysics and its revision along anthropological lines; the metaphysical, epistemological, and physiological dimensions of his theory of the soul-body relationship; his conception of aesthetics as the study of the sensuous basis of knowledge; and the relationship between the human and natural sciences. The second part then examines further aspects of this understanding of human nature and what emerges from it: the human-animal distinction; how human life evolves over space and time on the basis of a natural order; the fundamentally hermeneutic dimension to human existence; and the interrelatedness of language, history, religion, and culture.