PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY VIS-À-VIS SELF DISCOVERY AND WORLD OF MEANING

Abstract

Today it is difficult to distinguish metaphysics from philosophical anthropology, since we are so centrally preoccupied with man and his way of being. There is a considerable discussion about the self and its world of meaning and this discourse offers another aspect of considering the self and its world of meaning – an anthropological cum philosophical perspective of the self and the world of meaning; which offers an understanding of the self and the world of meaning. Self discovery follows from self awareness which is one of the higher levels of thought process of humans alongside rationality and wisdom. However, in this essay we shall be using self discovery for self awareness as if they are interchangeable. Self discovery, rationality and wisdom are the defining features of what constitutes the human person. Then we shall offer an explanation of the self and self discovery as well as be plunged into discussing the world of meaning from the perspective of philosophical anthropology. The problem which this write up tries to resolve is the problem of man himself who finds himself living in a world filled with so much uncertainties that necessitate the question whether there is any purpose for life or not. whether the self can ever be understood or remain a mystery that hides itself from the grasps of man/woman whose reality it comprises, and whether or not there is such a thing as a world of meaning and if there is, where is it, is the world of the self a world of meaning? Where is the world of the self? Is the world of meaning the physical world of human perception and activities or is it the world behind human perception that is, the world of the mind? If the world is meaningful what makes the world meaningful when there is so much confusion about the origin of all things including man himself who tries to explain everything including the discovery of himself/ herself in the world of change and multiplicity? Thus, It is within the context of philosophical anthropology employed that we shall be attempting a resolution to the problems raised above, but this resolution cannot be final because the problems above, as they concern the human reality in particular and existence in general, are perennial philosophical problems.