Levels of Organic Life and the Human - An Introduction to Philosophical Anthropology

A modern classic, this powerful and sophisticated account of embodiment was first published in German in 1928 and now appears in English for the first time. With reference simultaneously to science, social theory, and philosophy, Plessner shows how life can be seen on its own terms to establish its own boundaries. Plessner's account of how the human establishes itself in relation to the nonhuman will invigorate a range of current conversations around the animal, posthumanism, the material turn, and the biology and sociology of cognition.

List of contents

Foreword from the Helmuth Plessner Society | vii

Translator's Preface and Acknowledgments | ix

Preface to the First Edition (1928) | xv

Preface to the Second Edition (1965) | xix

Introduction | xxxvii

J. M. Bernstein

1. Aim and Scope of the Study | 1

The Development of Intuitionist Lebensphilosophie in Opposition to

Experience, 3 ¿ Lebensphilosophie and the Theory of the Humanities, 11 ¿

Working Plan for the Foundation of a Philosophy of the Human, 22

2. The Cartesian Objection and the Nature of the Problem | 34

Extension vs. Interiority and the Problem of Appearance, 34 ¿

Appearance as Originating in Interiority, 38 ¿ The Prior Givenness

of Interiority and the Forward Displacement of Myself: The Proposition

of Immanence 41 ¿ Extension as Outer World; Interiority as Inner

World, 46 ¿ The Proposition of Representation and the Element

of Sensation, 51 ¿ The Inaccessibility of Other I's according to the

Principle of Sensualism, 55 ¿ The Need for a Revision of the Cartesian

Dichotomy in the Interest of a Science of Life, 58 ¿ A Methodological

Reformulation of the Opening Question, 64

3. The Thesis | 75

The Question, 75 ¿ The Dual Aspect in the Appearance of Ordinary

Perceptual Things, 76 ¿ Against the Misinterpretation of This Analysis:

A Closer Focus on the Subject Matter, 81 ¿ The Dual Aspect of Living

Perceptual Things: Köhler contra Driesch, 84 ¿ How Is Dual Aspectivity

Possible? The Nature of the Boundary, 93 ¿ The Task of a Theory of the

Essential Characteristics of the Organic, 99 ¿ Definitions of Life, 104 ¿

Nature and Object of a Theory of the Essential Characteristics of the

Organic, 110

4. The Modes of Being of Vitality | 115

Essential Characteristics Indicating Vitality, 115 ¿ The Positionality of

Living Being and Its Spacelikeness, 118 ¿ Living Being as Process

and Type; the Dynamic Character of the Living Form; the Individuality of the

Living Thing, 123 ¿ Living Process as Development, 129 ¿ The Curve of

Development: Aging and Death, 137 ¿ The Individual Living Thing as a

System, 144 ¿ The Self-Regulation of the Individual Living Thing

and the Harmonious Equipotentiality of Its Parts, 149 ¿ Individual Living Things

as Organized: The Dual Meaning of Organs, 154 ¿ The Temporality of

Living Being, 159 ¿ The Positional Union of Space and Time and the

Natural Place, 168

5. The Organizational Modes of Living Being: Plants and Animals | 172

The Circle of Life, 172 ¿ Assimilation-Dissimilation, 182 ¿

Adaptedness and Adaptation, 186 ¿ Reproduction, Heredity,

Selection, 196 ¿ The Open Form of Organization of the Plant, 202 ¿

The Closed Form of Organization of the Animal, 209

6. The Sphere of the Animal | 219

The Positionality of the Closed Form: Centrality and Frontality, 219 ¿

The Coordination of Stimulus and Response in the Case of an Inoperative

Subject (Decentralized Type of Organization), 227 ¿ The Coordination of

Stimulus and Response by a Subject (Centralized Type of Organization),

231 ¿ The Animal's Surrounding Field Organized into Complex Qualities and

Things, 242 ¿ Intelligence, 252 ¿ Memory, 257 ¿ Memory as the Unity of

Residue and Anticipation, 262

7. The Sphere of the Human | 267

The Positionality of the Excentric Form: "I" and Personhood, 267 ¿

Outer World, Inner World, Shared World, 272 ¿ The Fundamental Laws

of Anthropology: The Law of Natural Artificiality, 287 ¿ The Law of

Mediated Immediacy: Immanence and Expressivity, 298 ¿ The Law of

the Utopian Standpoint: Nullity and Transcendence, 316

Appendix | 323

Glossary | 337

Notes | 345

Index | 359

About the author

Helmuth Plessner (Author)

Helmuth Plessner (1892-1985) was a German philosopher and sociologist. From 1953-59, he was president of the German Sociological Association. Three of his many books have appeared in English, Political Anthropology (Northwestern, 2018), The Limits of Community (Humanity Books, 1999) and Laughing and Crying (Northwestern, 1970).

J. M. Bernstein (Introducer)

J. M. Bernstein is University Distinguished Professor in Philosophy at The New School for Social Research in New York City.

Millay Hyatt (Translator)

Millay Hyatt is a writer and translator based in Berlin. Her dissertation, "No-Where and Now-Here: Utopia and Politics from Hegel to Deleuze," received the University of Southern California's doctoral research prize.

Product details

• Authors: Helmuth Plessner, Helmuth/ Hyatt Plessner
• Assisted by: Millay Hyatt (Translation)
• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.07.2019
• EAN: 9780823283996
• ISBN: 978-0-8232-8399-6
• No. of pages: 448
• Series: Forms of Living; Forms of Living
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works