Homo faber (anthropology)
The term Homō faber (Latin, “the creative man” or “the man as a craftsman”) is used in philosophical anthropology to distinguish modern man from older human epochs by virtue of his ability to actively change his environment.
This designation was used by Max Scheler in 1928 in the work The position of man in the cosmos . Scheler wanted to designate the anthropology represented by the evolutionists of the Darwin and Lamarck schools . Accordingly, homo faber describes a person who does not differ significantly from the animal - provided that the animal is granted intelligence - but who only has a more pronounced (practical) intelligence and thus a higher level of craftsmanship. Hannah Arendt put the homo faber 1958 in its major philosophical work vita activa and The Human Condition , the "Animal laborans" (which operates animal ') against whose existence to the work on the livelihood reduced. While in the development stage of the Animal Laborans the good life is the highest and only relevant good and products made by humans are reduced to their practical use, the Homo faber evaluates human works as valuable in themselves.
A closely related distinction is that between the Viator mundi, a pilgrim or traveler through the world, who is seen as characteristic of the Middle Ages , and the Faber mundi, a creator or ruler of the world , which emerged with the Renaissance .
See also
literature
- Hans-Peter Krüger : The 'human condition' of the West. Philosophical anthropology in H. Arendt's late work. In: German magazine for philosophy. Akademie, Berlin 2007, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 605-626 ISSN 0012-1045
- Max Frisch : Homo faber
