ANTHR 3476 - Philosophy and Anthropology Together

(HB) (SBA-AS)

Spring. 3 credits.

Recommended prerequisite: Some familiarity with anthropological and/or philosophical issues and debates. Co-meets with ANTHR 6476.

M. Fiskesjö.

Philosophy remains anthropology’s closest sister-discipline, or even its mother-discipline. Anthropology and philosophy are both dedicated to self-understanding: seeking to figure out what it is to be human, and what this means for us, raising questions such as how we can know the world, and ourselves, and how we should live; the relationship between language, culture and the world; how we differ from other animals; and much more. Both disciplines have tried to generalize about humanity, but because of its acute awareness of cultural diversity, the younger field of anthropology diverged from philosophy. In this course we re-build a “philosophically aware anthropology,” and take philosophy to task, by way of inspired readings carried out in a sympathetic yet critical spirit: We discuss a selection of important philosophers’ and anthropologists’ writings, and interdisciplinary dialogues.