The nature of human capacities

• Applicant: Dr. Lucian Ionel
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy ; History of Philosophy
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 424457659

In order to reinforce the Kantian project of vindicating human autonomy, recent philosophical approaches have appealed to the Aristotelian conception of rational capacities. The idea that autonomy is possible due to naturally acquired rational capacities has proven to be fruitful in the philosophy of mind, in action theory, in ethics, and in epistemology. This theoretical framework has, however, raised the question of whether rational capacities are understood as features of our natural life-form or whether they represent only an acquisition of ‘second nature’, being thus socially and historically constituted. Despite the widespread appeal to the explanatory power of the notion of a capacity, a comprehensive account of the way in which rational capacities are constituted is lacking. Such an account would take into consideration not only the transcendental but also the anthropological significance of the notion of a capacity. Drawing on the intersection between the transcendental and the anthropological import of the concept of capacity, my research project explores how an adequate analysis of the way in which rational capacities are constituted can overcome the dichotomy between natural abilities and acquired capacities. The purpose of this analysis is to clarify to what extent rational capacities can be considered 'natural' without being naturally given. It also aims to develop a critique of the prevalent categories of second nature, life-form, and genus. To this end, the project takes on a twofold challenge. On the one hand, building on Aristotelian insights, it examines the role of activities in the constitution of a rational faculty. On the other hand, following Hegel’s account of human self-consciousness, it explores how rational capacities are constituted in the life form and its developmental processes which are specific to the human kind. By clarifying how linguistic-conceptual capacities are constituted in developmental processes, the research project articulates a conception of the living human kind that should overcome both the naturalistic assumption of a predetermined species and the constructivist thesis of a subjectively self-constituting human life-form.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Dr. John Henry McDowell