Human Conditions

In our final episode, we will discuss the relevance of the ‘human’ in light of the current historical period, which is sometimes called the Anthropocene.  Through the work of Isabelle Stengers we want to investigate some of the most pertinent questions facing the “human” today? Allons-y!

Our philosophical search for the human condition has been a relatively provincial undertaking considered solely from the perspective of Europe and European philosophy. Yet what about philosophical anthropology — that is, what does the confrontation with different cultures mean for this Enlightenment subject?  Today, we will discuss this confrontation based on the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss, one o...

In our search for human conditions, we continue our zig-zag journey through philosophical history. Today we are slightly deviating from the format in discussing three thinkers: Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault. Sartre wrote a play in 1944 called Huis clos which depicted hell as a house with three people in it, who constantly interrupt one another — that’s hell, for him. So...

In our search for human conditions, we continue our zig-zag journey through philosophical history. After Heidegger's contemplations on being, Hannah Arendt turned away from endless reflections on ontology in response to the rise of tyranny. For Arendt, to be human is to begin anew, to start something fresh. It’s still another story with Anders. He observes that the human condition seems to involve...

Helmut Plessner - Excentric Positionality - Vital Categories The human,” Helmuth Plessner tells us, “lives only insofar as he leads a life”, our way of life isn't given in advance. It isn't determined by nature.  No answers are given in advance, there is no underlying model, no all determining blue-print. Today we talk about Helmut Plessner, a lesser-known philosopher, but not less important.   Al...

Friedrich Nietzsche - Dyonysian/Appollonian- The Death of God  "Be aware that when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster. For when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." Welcome to this week's podcast episode. We, David, Julien, and Rolf will discuss human conditions. What is philosophical anthropology? Why is it important? Is it important? What is the human?  T...

Immanuel Kant - What can I know? - What should I do? - What may I hope? - What is the human? In these podcasts, we zig-zag through space and time, traveling through philosophical history, attempting to address a condition that affects us all: the human condition. We will see that there might not be a single condition but many ways of being a human, multiple conditions. And are we even human? Imman...

Edmund Husserl - Phenomenology - Intentionality - Sein und Zeit - Martin Heidegger  In these podcasts, we zig-zag through space and time, traveling through philosophical history, attempting to address a condition that affects us all: the human condition. We will see that there might not be a single condition but many ways of being a human, multiple conditions. And are we even human? Today we talk...