Anthropology and the Humanities

In my reading of Foucault's Introduction, I was most concerned with how his presentation of Kant's Anthropology relates to our own consideration of the humanities.  Within the space of this post, I would like to address two themes that I hope will relate to broader discussion: the epistemological centrality of the human being, and the self-reflexive role of the human being in the world.

With regard to the former, Foucault returns again and again to the basic question underlying Kant's Anthropology: "Was ist der Mench?"  (What is the human being?).  This question provides not only the impetus for the practice of anthropology, but also the fundamental orientation for all philosophical inquiry.  Only insofar as one is human can one approach other questions such as "what can I know?" or "what should I do?"  As a human endeavor, philosophy cannot stand outside the purview of the humanities.  This reading of Kant brings his Anthropology into dialogue with his three Critiques.  It also seems to drive Foucault's historical analysis of these texts, as he emphasizes Kant's contemporaneous engagement with the Anthropology and the Critiques.

The second theme relates closely to the first.  In our meeting last week, Travis introduced Foucault's notion of the human being as empirico-transcendental doublet.  In Foucault's view of Kantian philosophy, the human being is at once the transcendental subject and the empirical object of knowledge.  Addressing the aim of anthropological reflection, Foucault emphasizes Kant's idea of "Spielen" (to play), the quotidian human connection to the world.  Only through this connection do we relate to the world around us.  Yet we do not stand apart from all that we encounter--we are also a part of the game.