Herder: philosophy and anthropology

This unprecedented collection fills a gap in the secondary literature, highlighting the genuinely innovative and distinctive nature of Herder's philosophy. Not only does Herder offer highly original answers to important philosophical questions, such as the mind-body problem and the role of sensibility in cognition and ethics, he also opens up rich resources for thinking about the very nature of philosophy itself and its connections to other fields in the humanities and social sciences. Herder: Philosophy and Anthropology brings together a set of original essays that centre on the question at the heart of Herder's philosophical thought: How can philosophy enable an understanding of the human being that does not narrowly focus on its rational and moral capacities, but rather understands these in the context of its existence as a creature of nature that is fundamentally marked by a sensuous and affective openness and responsiveness to the world and other persons. 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. 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. -- from back cover.

"The immediate occasion for this volume was provided by a conference on "The Enlightenment and the Development of Philosophical Anthropology" held at the University of Sydney in November 2013 and organized by Anik Waldow, Dalia Nassar, and Stephen Gaukroger."--Page v.

Part I. Towards a new philosophy: Philosophy as anthropology -- Philosophy as philosophical anthropology : An interview with Charles Taylor -- Anthropology and the critique of metaphysics in the early Herder / Marion Heinz -- The metaphysical and epistemological foundations of Herder's philosophical anthropology / Nigel DeSouza -- Herder: Physiology and philosophical anthropology / Stefanie Buchenau -- The role of aesthetics in Herder's anthropology / STephen Gaukroger -- Understanding as explanation: The significance of Herder's and Goethe's science of describing / Dalia Nassar -- Part II. The human animal: Nature, language, history, culture -- Herder between Reimarus and Tetens: The problem of an animal-human boundary / John H. Zammito -- Between history and nature: Herder's human being and the naturalization of reason / Anik Waldow -- Human nature and human science: Herder and the anthropological turn in hermeneutics / Kristin Gjesdal -- Herder's religious anthropology in his later writings / Johannes Schmidt -- Individualism and universalism in Herder's conception of the philosophy of history / Martin Bollacher -- Herder and human rights / Martin Bollacher -- Herder and human …