Philosophical Anthropology: An Introduction to Dimensional Anthropology

The present paper introduces and criticizes the book, entitled Philosophical Anthropology, authored by Hans Dierkes. In this book, the author has selected texts containing educational perspectives on the subject matter of the discussion, proposed mainly without any comprehensive analysis and deep systematization. After mentioning four levels of philosophical anthropology proposed by Dierkes and criticizing them, this paper talks about the importance of paying attention to the new approach called “dimensional anthropology”, and in addition to investigating the anthropology classification in the book structure, it has referred to the proposed quadripartite model in the human exposure to self, nature, society, and God. In the following, the similarities and differences between the anthropological perspectives are explained using the analytical-critical method, and it paves the way for their philosophical criticism. Accordingly, the most important finding of this research is that most of the anthropological perspectives have paid attention to one or more than one dimension of human facets and have been magnified, and there are few perspectives in which one can achieve the analysis of the relation and interaction between all human forces, indicating the importance of paying attention to the philosophical and methodological foundations of “dimensional anthropology”.  This book is very helpful with regard to opening scientific horizons and posing main anthropological questions, but presenting any definition of the realm and examples of philosophical anthropology depends on the explanation of the “subject” and “method” of such approach, and no clear boundary can be found between the four levels of Philosophical Anthropology proposed by Dierkes without having an accurate perspective on its components.