O HOMEM COMO GESTO DA TRANSCENDÊNCIA: DA DEFICIÊNCIA BIOLÓGICA AO TEOMORFISMO EM MAX SCHELER E JOÃO A. MAC DOWELL
O HOMEM COMO GESTO DA TRANSCENDÊNCIA: DA DEFICIÊNCIA BIOLÓGICA AO TEOMORFISMO EM MAX SCHELER E JOÃO A. MAC DOWELL
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.8178112602019
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Palavras-chave: Max Scheler; João A. Mac Dowell; philosophical anthropology; self-transcendence; theomorphism.
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Keywords: Max Scheler; João A. Mac Dowell; antropologia filosófica; autotranscendência; teomorfismo
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Abstract: This article examines Max Scheler’s concept of man as a “sick animal” and its reinterpretation in light of João A. Mac Dowell’s transcendental anthropology. It begins with a critique of fragmentary interpretations of man that reduce him to biological, psychological, or sociocultural aspects, highlighting the need to understand human unity without suppressing its complexity. Scheler demonstrates that man’s instinctive deficiency, far from being merely a deficit, constitutes the condition for the emergence of the spirit and openness to the realm of values. Mac Dowell’s analysis complements this perspective by showing that the experience of God is not an object among others, but the transcendental condition that makes all human experience possible. The interaction between Scheler and Mac Dowell allows for a reinterpretation of biological deficiency and rupture with life as the positive condition for self-transcendence, revealing a spiritual structure oriented toward the Absolute. The study thus proposes that human identity be understood not as anthropomorphism but as theomorphism: man is a finite, historical image open to the Absolute, whose full realization depends on the recognition of finitude and the spirit’s orientation beyond itself.
- CLEVERSON SANTOS XAVIER