Lecture Note I

Philosophical Anthropology
Philosophy 2

“Man wonders over the restless sea, the flowing waters, the sight of the sky, and forgets
that of all wonders Man himself is the most wonderful”.-Augustine.

Introduction
Man is a term that is often used to refer to human beings in general, regardless of gender. It can
be used to describe all members of the species Homo sapiens, or it can be used more broadly to
refer to any member of the genus Homo, which includes modern humans as well as extinct
species such as Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo erectus. Man has been a central subject of
study in many fields, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, and biology. In
anthropology, for example, man is studied in the context of human culture and society, including
the ways in which people live, work, and interact with one another. In biology, man is studied in
the context of human evolution and the physical characteristics that distinguish us from other
primates. Overall, man is a term that is used to refer to human beings and the many ways in
which we differ from and are similar to other species, thus, Man deserves to be studied. The
study of man, or anthropology, seeks to understand and explain the complex and varied aspects
of human culture and society, and has the potential to provide insights into the human experience
and the ways in which humans have interacted with the world around them. Hence, Battista
Modin posits that Man is the supreme question for Man. For him, the relevance of any
philosophical question or even questions that occur within the natural sciences is only possible
because of the nature of Man. Hence, the question “Who is Man” becomes an age long but ever
new problematique that needs urgent attention. The Last two centuries and indeed the present
one have had diverse notion of Man. The question of Man has been given so much attention now
than ever. Man from the beginning has always been an object of study, in the ancient period,
Philosophical enquiry was Cosmocentric, in the medieval period it was theocentric, in the two
epochs mentioned man was always studied together with other primary realities in his
environment, however, the modern period was a shift in history, when Man was studied
independently1. It was only beginning with Descartes, with the affirmation of anthroprocentric
perspective, that man became the center and point of departure for every philosophizing2.

Meaning of Anthropology:

The study of man, or anthropology, has a long and rich history, and it has evolved significantly
over time. It has become a broad and interdisciplinary field that encompasses a range of
subfields, including cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, physical anthropology, and
archaeology. These subfields use a variety of methods, including fieldwork, laboratory analysis,
and historical research, to understand and explain the complex and varied aspects of human
culture and society. Anthropologists have made many important contributions to our
understanding of the human experience. They have studied the ways in which people live, work,
and interact with one another, and have examined the cultural practices, beliefs, and values that

1
Oyeshile, O. (2006). The Individual-Community Relationship as an Issue in Social and Political Philosophy. In
Olusegun Oladipo (ed). Core Issues in African Philosophy, pp.102-119. Ibadan: Hope Publications pg.3
2
Modin pg. 7

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shape human behavior. They have also studied the evolution and physical characteristics of
humans and other primates, and have analyzed the material remains of past cultures and societies
to understand how humans have interacted with the world around them.

Overall, the study of man, or anthropology, is a diverse and interdisciplinary field that seeks to
understand and explain the complex and varied aspects of human culture and society. It draws on
a wide range of disciplines, including biology, sociology, psychology, and history, and has the
potential to provide insights into the human experience and the ways in which humans have
interacted with the world around them.

The word “anthropology” is derived from two Greek words, anthropos (man) and logos (study
or science). From the meaning of the Greek derivative, Anthropology is the science of man or
the scientific study of Man. Man is subject matter in the study of Anthropology. Anthropology
as homocentric studies man’s work and behavior within a given environment. Scholars of
Anthropology focus on aspects of the human species and human behaviour, in all places and at
all times, from the origin and evolution of the species through its prehistoric civilizations down
to the present situation. Anthropologists study human condition by concentrating on human
behaviour and the relation of Man with his fellow man and of course with his environment.
Unlike many other subjects that study one aspect of man, Anthropology studies various aspects
of man. With the Greek Origin of Anthropology as Anthropos, Logos, one can deduce that the
greeks understood ab initio the constitution of Man, however note must be taken on the fact
that the Greeks definition of humans are majorly understood from the point of view of
Philosophy, this statement that anthropology explicitly or implicitly has its root from
Philosophy is credible through the works and thoughts philosophers.3 One can also trace
anthropology as reoccurring in the greek mythology and stories of the relationship between
Man and the gods. The relationship between humans and Greek gods is revealed through
several myths. This shows that the study of Anthropology is as old as Man itself.

In answering the question of the constitution of the cosmos, the early Greeks engaged in
philosophical enquiries on Man, of course every philosophical question confronts Man and his
origin in the universe. For Thales, All is water implying that Man is made from water, for
Anaximander Aperion, for Anaximanes Air, for Heraclitus change4 , we again consider
Anaxagoras four constituting elements of earth, water, fire and air and Democritus’ atoms, for
Plato: ‘Humans are made up of body and soul, for Aristotle: ‘Man is a rational animal and
Sigmund Freud: ‘Man is made up of three personality traits Id, Ego and Super Ego’ one can
go on ad in finitum, the point here is to emphasize that Philosophy as the science of all
sciences and indeed the mother of all sciences, is an enquiry into the nature and constitution of
the human question in its entirety. Hence, anthropological problems are as well philosophical
problems. Anthropology is the study of the different types of people and their nature,
Philosophy is the core discipline that studies anthropology.

What is then Philosophical Anthropology?

3
Unah, Jim I. (2016). On Being: Discourse on the Ontology of Human Being. Lagos: Foresight Press. Pg.44
4
Tantray, Role of Philosophy to examine values of Traditional Societies and Modern Societies: An ethical study,
2017, pp. 28-29)

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Succinctly put, the Philosophical study of Man (Who is Man?) is known as Philosophical
Anthropology. Anthropology not only leads to satisfaction of intellectual curiosity but remains
a tool “through which we learn more of the nature of Man, to the end that we may more
effectively understand man’s problem and how to solve them” 5 Philosophy and anthropology
are two distinct fields of study that are often interconnected and overlapping. Philosophy is the
discipline that seeks to understand the nature of reality, knowledge, and existence, while
anthropology is the study of human cultures and societies. Philosophical anthropology is a
discipline within philosophy that seeks to understand what it means to be human. It investigates
the nature of the human being and the meaning of human existence. It also examines the
conditions that make it possible for human beings to lead fulfilling and meaningful lives. Some
key questions that philosophical anthropology seeks to answer include: What is the nature of
the human mind and consciousness? What is the relationship between the body and the mind?
How do cultural and social factors shape human experience and behavior? How do human
beings acquire knowledge and make meaning of the world around them? What is the role of
language in human thought and communication?

Philosophical anthropology is a broad field that encompasses a variety of approaches and

perspectives. Some philosophers have focused on the nature of human consciousness and the
mind, while others have focused on the role of language and culture in shaping human
experience.6 Still others have examined the relationship between the human being and the natural
world, or have explored the ethical and moral dimensions of human existence. One important
aspect of philosophical anthropology is its interdisciplinary nature. It often involves drawing on
insights and findings from a range of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, anthropology,
biology, and neuroscience. Some key figures in the history of philosophical anthropology include
Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and
Maurice Merleau-Ponty etc. In recent years, the field has seen a resurgence of interest, with
philosophers and scholars from a variety of disciplines contributing to the ongoing debate about
what it means to be human.

From the forgoing, it means that anthropology needs the assistance of philosophy to become a
universal science of man. Different philosophical traditions proposed their inputs, which would
make anthropology philosophical. Emmanuel Kant proposed reason as the basic characteristic of
all humans. According to Kant, reason is the only property peculiar to all humans; implying that
reason should be the guide to all human actions. But this universal characteristic of reason
suggested by Kant does not exhaust all the universal traits of man that all humans share. For
instance, one other characteristic of man that Kant did not mention is ―work. Human life in
every civilization is defined by work. It could be said, as Karl Marx did, that ―work is man‘s
life. It is because of this universal trait that Karl Marx insisted that the worker should not be
deprived of the fruit of his labour; the proceeds from his work. Another philosopher, Ludwig
Feuerbach, defined man as an essence seeking being. It is this search for essence that takes man
to religion and the quest for the world beyond. Without going into details, all three
characteristics mentioned by the three philosophers are true characteristics of the human person.
What is not true, however, as each of then tended to suggest, is that only one of the

5
Hoebel A, (1949), Anthropology pg. 4
6
Harris, M. (1968). The Rise of Anthropological Theories: A History of Theories of Culture. Columbia University:
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, Inc.pg.13

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characteristics can exhaustively define man or human reality. So, even the effort of philosophical
anthropologists to answer the question, ―what is man leaves gaps for a more universal science
of man to fill.

Contemporary approaches to philosophical anthropology include:

 Phenomenological anthropology, which focuses on the subjective experience of the

human being and the ways in which the world is given to us through our own
consciousness.
 Structuralist anthropology, which emphasizes the role of cultural and social structures in
shaping human experience and behavior.
 Evolutionary anthropology, which investigates the biological and evolutionary origins of
human characteristics and behavior.
 Existential anthropology, which explores the meaning of human existence and the ways
in which individuals create their own sense of purpose and identity.
 Critical anthropology, which critiques the ways in which power and ideology shape our
understanding of the human being.
 Neuroanthropology, which examines the relationship between the brain and culture and
how they influence each other.
 Posthumanist anthropology, which challenges the traditional human-centered perspective
and explores the ways in which non-human entities, such as animals and technology,
shape our understanding of the human.

Note that there are many different approaches to philosophical anthropology, and no one
approach can fully capture the complexity of the human being. Instead, philosophical
anthropology seeks to understand the many different dimensions of what it means to be human.

Key topics and themes that are often addressed within philosophical anthropology include:

 The nature of consciousness and the mind: Philosophers in this area may investigate the
relationship between the mind and the brain, the nature of self-awareness, and the ways in
which the mind processes and understands the world.
 The role of language in shaping human thought and communication: Many philosophers
have explored the ways in which language shapes our understanding of the world and our
ability to communicate with others.
 The relationship between the individual and society: Philosophers in this area may
investigate the ways in which social and cultural structures shape individual behavior and
identity, as well as the ways in which individuals contribute to and shape these structures.
 The nature of human freedom and agency: Philosophers have long debated the extent to
which human beings are free to make their own choices and shape their own lives, and
how this freedom is related to our understanding of moral responsibility.
 The meaning of human existence: This is a central question for many philosophers in the
field, and includes investigations into the nature of happiness, fulfillment, and the good
life.

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  The relationship between the human being and nature: Philosophers in this area may
investigate the ways in which human beings interact with and relate to the natural world,
as well as the ethical and moral implications of these interactions.

 The role of culture and tradition in shaping human experience: Many philosophers have
explored the ways in which culture and tradition shape human beliefs, values, and
behaviors, and the extent to which these cultural influences can be challenged or
transcended.
 The impact of technology on the human being: With the rapid pace of technological
advancement in recent years, philosophers have begun to examine the ways in which
technology is changing the nature of human experience and the ethical implications of
these changes.
 The role of emotions in human life: Emotions play a central role in human experience
and behavior, and philosophers have investigated the nature of emotions and their
relationship to reason and decision-making.
 The nature of human morality and ethics: Philosophers have long debated the foundations
of moral and ethical principles and the extent to which these principles are universal or
culturally specific.
 The nature of human rights: Philosophers have debated the foundations of human rights
and the extent to which these rights are universal or culturally specific.

 The role of gender and sexuality in human experience: Many philosophers have explored
the ways in which gender and sexual identity shape human experience and behavior, and
the extent to which these identities are shaped by cultural and social factors.
 The nature of human relationships: Philosophers have examined the nature of human
relationships and the ways in which these relationships shape our sense of self and our
understanding of the world.
 The nature of human creativity and imagination: Philosophers have investigated the ways
in which human beings create and imagine, and the role of creativity in shaping our
understanding of the world.
 The nature of human suffering and the experience of suffering: Philosophers have
examined the nature of human suffering and the ways in which we respond to and cope
with suffering, as well as the ethical and moral implications of suffering.

Relation between Philosophy and Anthropology

As already said above, one cannot differentiate Philosophy from Anthropology. The duo are
related to each other. Philosophy provides a formal foundation that initiates a rational ground for
the study of man, his culture and environment, Anthropology however, is the study of human
beings in its entirety.7 Anthropological study is derived from the concepts of Philosophy.
Because hardly any subject except philosophy has discussed human being in its multiple facets
which includes the
1. Metaphysical study of humans (Self, soul and substances),
2. Ethical study (moral development visa a visa character, customs, behavior)
3.  Social transformation and cultural transformation)
7
Erickson, T.H. (2004). What is Anthropology? London: Pluto Press.pg.17

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 4. Linguistic development (communication, expression and vocal)
5. Religious study which explores the belief system and religion of different generations in
the present and past.
6. Political Orientation (the effort to organize himself and define his survival)
So these studies result in diversified branches of anthropology like social anthropology, cultural
anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological anthropology, political anthropology, linguistic
Anthropology, religious anthropology and environmental anthropology. It means that
anthropology has its history in philosophy. If anthropology is the study of man with his present
and past as well as with his culture, language, customs, religion, environment, then these issues
are already discussed and investigated in philosophical inquiry.
The following questions,
1. What makes human beings human?
2. What is their role in the world?
3. How are cultures transformed?
4. How soul and body are the component constituents of man?
5. What is the role of language in the development of man?
6. How humans evolved with due time and space?
7. What the different theories of evolution are of man i.e. religious theories, spiritual theories
and biological theories as well psychology theories are descriptions and argumentation on
the science of humans and their predicate nature.

Descartes: Man is thinking being

Kant: Humans use understanding and sense perception in making judgments
Kierkegaard: Humans are existential beings
Socrates: Humans should know their self
Wittgenstein: Humans should make their language easy and clear in order to transform and
communicate their thoughts and technology.
We can explore the nature of humans through philosophical reflections of ancient philosophy,
medieval and modern and also with different Philosophical theories. It seems to me that both
philosophy and anthropology has same functions to discover. Philosophy studies the
fundamental problems like existence, knowledge, consciousness, understanding, causation,
mind, body, time, space, world, self and reality. In the same parallel approach, anthropology
studies the nature of mankind with his relation to those Philosophical problems.
Anthropologists derived all their theories and concepts from Philosophy because every aspect
of human nature is elaborated in the chapter of philosopher whether spiritual development of
man, economical, existential, environmental, metaphysical, epistemological, axiological,
mental, biological, moral and cultural. Philosophy always describes man as a being who is the
crown of the creation, philosophy called it by many names. Remember Dr Sir Mohd Iqbal who
calls human being mard-e-mumin, mard-e-kamil (vicegerent of God on Earth) and Koran says

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 about humans that they are above all creations as they are responsible beings.8

Characteristics / limitations of Anthropology

1. It is within the ambience of Anthropology to study human nature only if the study can be
duly evaluated on the basis of philosophical theories.
2. Knowledge of the anthropology is limited whereas the knowledge of philosophy is vast
3. Anthropology gives us the limited criteria for study whereas Philosophy gives us all
domains to study human nature.
4. Through anthropology and Philosophy we can analyze and develop our culture, society
political system economy and self.
5. Philosophy and anthropology are so related that we can evaluate and examine different set
of theories and philosophies for progress and change.
6. Philosophy and anthropology are evolving and changing. By these fields we can see the
development and nature of past and present history of humans.
7. Excluding Philosophy, anthropology cannot work and would not produce utilitarian
results.
8. If there is no philosophy in anthropology, there is no scope and understanding for it.
9. Anthropology studies only human nature with respect to time and space but Philosophy
studies all its allied fields with which human is concerned.

Relationship of Anthropology with other Branches of Philosophy

Metaphysics and Anthropology

Metaphysics is the study of those entities or statements which lie beyond our understanding,
experience and logic, i.e. beyond time and space. It is known as first philosophy because it
studies the first principles. So, in its close connection with anthropology we can assume that
anthropology has its metaphysical part which studies human science in relation with man, God
and world. Whenever we study humanity and human being implicitly or explicitly in terms of
its interrelation with God and world as well as time and space, in this manner we are dealing
with metaphysics. The metaphysics of anthropology explores the spiritual, mental and
theoretical part of humanity. Metaphysicians like Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle,
Spinoza, Berkeley, Bradley, have described humanity as unique metaphysical component in
relation to matter. Traditional Greek philosophy regards the concept of mind (human) as
something spiritual or mysterious vital part which is either opposite of physical or a life force,
they are of the vision that mind is a spiritual part of the reality of which matter is a physical
part. Metaphysics and anthropology are linked and developed hand to hand. Their relation has
established a tremendous knowledge in the world of anthropogenic sciences. Although humans
are physical but their humanity is metaphysical, and how this humanity could be developed,
transmitted to cultures, and evolved with due time can be investigated only through
philosophical and rational exploration. Though metaphysics is the study of being and in
anthropology this being is human. It is the study of ultimate reality and in anthropology we
are also studying the ultimate reality of human beings, their attributes, cultures and evolution.
Once Hegel said that “whatever is real is rational and whatever is rational is real”. It meant that
whatever is metaphysical has its opponent physical and whatever is physical has its
8
Barnad, A. (2004). History and Theory in Anthropology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press pg.22

7
metaphysical part”. Thus anthropology is intimately related with metaphysics and ontology.
According to Kierkegaard, Existence precedes Essence which connotes that study of human
beings are first principles and their essence could be determined only through their essence.
The Following are the ontological claims of philosophers;
Descartes: I think, therefore I am. Kant: I ought, therefore I can,
Kierkegaard: I am, therefore I think. Thomas Jefferson: I feel, therefore I
exist. Albert Camus: I rebel, therefore I am, Leo Tolstoy: I want, therefore
I am, Paul Valery: Sometimes I think: and sometimes I am. Max Stirner: I
labor, therefore I am a man.
Epistemology and anthropology
As epistemology is the study of knowledge and understanding, so, anthropology needs
epistemology to understand human beings and their morality and cultures as well as language.
How we could know human beings, how we could know their language, customs and cultures, is
there any limit in knowing them? Epistemology provides a valid scope to know humanity.
Today the world is called a global village only because people could easily know each other,
their psychology, environment, culture, language, biology, and philosophy. We assume with the
help of modern researches and inquires that humanity is a capacity (modular) in human beings
just like flying in birds. Humans can learn and acquire norms and morality only if they could get
a suitable and good environment while birds and animals could not. Birds and animals could not
develop morality even if we could provide suitable environment to them.
Axiology and anthropology
Axiology and anthropology are closely interdependent. While axiology is the science of worth
(values) and humanity and human being has a significant worth. As axiology is the study of
values. So, is with the anthropology which studies human person? When we pay attention to
anthropology, its main theme is; what makes human beings, human and it is only the value
which enlightens the attribute of humanity. All the three cluster values; goodness, truth and
beauty of ethics, logic as well as aesthetics determines the moral, rational and archetypical
nature of humans and their humanity.9

Branches of anthropology with their relation with philosophy

Environmental anthropology
Environmental anthropology is a sub-specialty within the field of anthropology that takes an
active role in examining the relationships between humans and their environment across space
and time. This field of anthropology describes the exchanges of cultural values and also the
development of the humans in learning from others. Environment anthropology determines the
adaptation, survival, struggle, atmosphere and evolution of humans. Not only this environment
provides the significant data to anthropologist to study the past history and philosophy of
humans. How they got developed, what was their weather (cool, dry or moderate). How they
lived their life. What were their culture, education system, tools and transport? We can know
easily the life of ancestors in the world from their environment to which they belongs.

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Tantray, 2016

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Social anthropology
The term social anthropology emerged in Britain in the early years of the 20th century and was
used to describe a distinctive style of anthropology, comparative, fieldwork- based, and with
strong intellectual links to the sociological ideas of Émile Durkheim and the group of French
scholars associated with the journal L’Année sociologique. Although it was at first defined in
opposition to then fashionable evolutionary and diffusions schools of anthropology, by the mid
of 20th century social anthropology was increasingly contrasted with the more humanistic
tradition of American cultural anthropology. At this point, the discipline spread to various parts
of what was then the British Empire and also was established as a distinctive strand of teaching
and research in a handful of American universities. The years after World War II, though,
brought a partial breakdown of the British opposition to American cultural anthropology, as
younger scholars abandoned the tenets of comparative sociology set out by one of the
discipline‟s founders, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown. During the same period, however, the term was
increasingly used in Continental Europe: the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss
accepted a chair in social anthropology in the Collège de France in 1959, and, when European
anthropologists established a joint professional association in the late 1980s, it took the title
European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) and called its journal of Social
anthropology.

Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is that major division of anthropology that explains culture in its
many aspects. It is anchored in the collection, analysis, and explanation (or interpretation)of the
primary data of extended ethnographic field research. This discipline, both in America and in
Europe, has long cast a wide net and includes various approaches. It has produced such
collateral approaches as culture and personality studies, culture history, cultural ecology,
cultural materialism, ethno- history, and historical anthropology. These sub disciplines
variously exploit methods from the sciences and the humanities. Cultural anthropology has
become a family of approaches oriented by the culture concept. The central tendencies and
recurrent debates since the mid-19th century have engaged Universalist versus
particularistic perspectives, scientific versus humanistic perspectives, and the
explanatory power of biology (nature) versus that of culture (nurture). Two persistent themes
have been the dynamics of culture change and the symbolic meanings at the core of culture.
The definition of culture has long provoked debate. The earliest and most quoted definition is
the one formulated in 1871 by Edward Burnett Tylor: Culture or Civilization, taken in its wide
ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law,
custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Three
things of enduring relevance are to be remarked in this definition. First, it treats culture and
civilization as interchangeable terms. Second, it emphasizes ethnography. And third, it singles
out that which is learned by means of living in society rather than what is inherited
biologically.

Biological anthropology (physical anthropology)

Physical anthropology also known as biological anthropology is concerned with the
origin, evolution, and diversity of people. Physical anthropologists work broadly on three
major sets of problems: human and nonhuman primate evolution, human variation and its

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significance, and the biological bases of human behavior. The course that human evolution has
taken and the processes that have brought it about are of equal concern. In order to explain the
diversity within and between human populations, physical anthropologists must study past
populations of fossil hominines as well as the nonhuman primates. Much light has been thrown
upon the relation to other primates and upon the nature of the transformation to human anatomy
and behavior in the course of evolution from early hominines to modern people-a span of at
least four million years. The processes responsible for the differentiation of people into
geographic populations and for the overall unity of Homo sapiens include natural selection,
mutation, genetic drift, migration, and genetic recombination. Objective methods of isolating
various kinds of traits and dealing mathematically with their frequencies, as well as their
functional or phylogenetic significance, make it possible to understand the composition of
human populations and to formulate hypotheses concerning their future. The genetic and
anthropometric information that physical anthropologists collect provides facts about not only
the groups who inhabit the globe but also the individuals who compose those groups. Estimates
of the probabilities that children will inherit certain genes can help to counsel families about
some medical conditions.
Linguistic anthropology
Linguistic anthropologists argue that human production of talk and text, made possible by the
unique human capacity for language, is a fundamental mechanism through which people create
culture and social life. Contemporary scholars in the discipline explore how this creation is
accomplished by using many methods, but they emphasize the analysis of audio or video
recordings of “socially occurring” discourse, that is, talk and text that would appear in a
community whether or not the anthropologist was present. This method is preferred because
differences in how different communities understand the meaning of speech acts, such as
“questioning,” may shape in unpredictable ways the results derived from investigator-imposed
elicitation, such as “interviewing.” A central question for linguistic anthropology is whether
differences in cultural and structural usage among diverse languages promote differences
among human communities in how the world is understood. Local cultures of language may
prefer certain forms of expression and avoid others. For instance, while the vocabulary of
English includes an elaborate set of so- called absolute directional (words such as north
and southwest), most speakers seldom use these terms for orientation, preferring vocabulary
that is relative to a local context (such as downhill or left). “Cultures of language” may cross
linguistic boundaries. An important line of research explores how “cultural models”-local
understandings of the world are encoded in talk and text. Students of “language ideologies”
look at local ideas about how language functions. A significant language ideology associated
with the formation of modern nation-states constructs certain ways of speaking as “standard
languages”; once a standard is defined, it is treated as prestigious and appropriate, while others
languages or dialects are marginalized and stigmatized.

Psychological anthropology
Psychological anthropology focuses on the mind, body, and subjectivity of the individual in
whose life and experience culture and society are actualized. Within this broad scope there is
no unified theoretical or methodological consensus, but rather there are lively debates about the
relative importance of culture versus individual psychology in shaping human action and about
the universality versus the inherent variability of human existence. The field unites a number of

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disparate research traditions with different intellectual programs, but it also provides an arena
for principled argumentation about the existence of a common human nature. Because of its
focus on the individual who lives and embodies culture, psychological anthropological writing
is often the study of one or a few actual peo/ple. Such “person-centered” ethnography augments
a schematic view of cultural and social systems with a description and evocation of the
experience of participating in such a system. Researchers in the classical “culture-and-
personality” school of psychological anthropology look for typical child-rearing customs,
situations, patterns, or traumas that might result in characteristic responses (fantasies, anxieties,
or conflicts) that in turn would find expression or resolution in the rituals, myths, and other
features of the culture under study. Many employ a cross- cultural comparative methodology,
seeking significant correlation between a childhood experience and adult institutions; for
example, they look for a correlation between father absence and the harsh male initiation rites
thought necessary to counteract strong maternal identification.

Conclusion
Thus it appears from this paper that philosophy and anthropology are intimately related.
Humans need philosophy to interpret their multidimensional properties within time, space,
place, existence, environment and cognition. On the one side philosophy is the clarification and
investigation to anthropology and on the other anthropology examines the existential and
humanistic approach to study philosophy. From this paper it is evident that philosophers have
discussed rather simplified the issue related to anthropology, sometimes they are knowing that
the science which we are discussing is anthropology and sometimes they are unaware of the
fact that what we are doing with humanity is anthropology. Philosophers analyzed the facets of
human beings complemented with philosophical issue. Anthropology as a science was present
in Greek and Medieval philosophy but they had not named and classified as anthropology. In
case of modern philosophy, the anthropological issues pre-requisites philosophical theories in
order to solve fundamental and ontological problems in the field of anthropology. Philosophy
provides arguments in favor of metaphysical issues of human beings, epistemological issues,
axiological issues, environmental issues and linguistic issues of humans and their humanity.

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