Artificialità naturale

During the twentieth century, philosophical anthropology focused on the connection between the natural and cultural dimensions in human being, so much so that one can speak, with regard to man, of "natural artificiality". This paper addresses the analysis of the different interpretations of this concept in Gehlen's (and Scheler's) thought and in Plessner's anthropology. Gehlen considers man's "biological deficiency" the condition of an absolute and full "opening to the world" and the transformation of man into a total "artificial being". On the contrary, Plessner claims that man invariably remains a natural being, since his culture is intertwined with nature and his artificiality conditioned through his own nature.