Alcune riflessioni sul concetto di «ganzer Mensch» nel tardo Illuminismo tedesco

The essay sets out to survey the debates arisen around the concept of the «whole man» in German 18th-Century studies, departing from the articulate miscellany edited by Hans-Jürgen Schings in 1992 and involving more recent venues that consider humanity from the viewpoint of “national character” as well as of the distinguishing features encountered during geographic explorations. Going beyond, however, the two main research paths of the last two decades, respectively focused on enquiries in physical anthropology and on the relationship between anthropology and cultural history, the present essay offers manifold reflections on the relationship between anthropology and aesthetics, on medical-theological issues as well as on literary anthropology. The essay ends up with a projective gaze cast upon the 20th Century: in the 1920s we find the concept of “person” and the interest for a philosophy of language that integrates Herder's and Wilhelm von Humboldt's studies, thus projecting new theoretical solutions to foster and enhance «Humanität».