The Theological Significance of Michael Tomasello's Evolutionary Anthropology

迈克尔·托马塞洛进化人类学的神学意义

• 批准号: 409473436
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Martin Breul
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Katholische Theologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2017-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/409473436?language=en
• 关键词: Theological; Significance; Michael; Tomasello; Evolutionary

Evolutionary Anthropology is a rapidly growing field of research which has been neglected or even disregarded by theology so far. The research project aims at a reconstruction and critical evaluation of the potentials and boundaries of one of the major strands in evolutionary anthropology, namely Michael Tomasello’s approach, from a perspective of theological anthropology. In a first step, it is necessary to thoroughly examine and reconstruct Tomasello’s approach in order to identify its anthropological impact and to introduce the main pillars of his theory to the theological research community. This reconstruction of Tomasello’s approach will be embedded in a methodological analysis of the relevance of evolutionary approaches for theological anthropology. Thereafter, two exemplary case studies in theological anthropology will be conducted, as they help to evaluate the scope and the limits of evolutionary anthropology. The case studies will analyse the mind-body problem and the capability of freedom. The working hypothesis of the research project consists in the assumption that mutual interpolations of the respective anthropologies are possible and fruitful. Theological anthropology could profit from considering the genesis of specific human capabilities as it might gain a deeper understanding of them without the necessity to embrace a reductive naturalism. Evolutionary anthropology, however, should take core insights of theological anthropology, especially regarding the conditions of the capability of freedom and the core capability to ask for the meaning of one’s existence, into consideration. Hence, an engagement with evolutionary anthropology may help to ensure the interdisciplinary entanglement of theological anthropology. At the same time, a critical examination of the boundaries and blind spots of evolutionary anthropology may demonstrate the interdisciplinary potentials of theological anthropology.

进化人类学是一个快速增长的研究领域，到目前为止，神学已经忽视或忽略了。该研究项目旨在重建和批判性评估进化人类学的主要链接之一的潜力和边界，即迈克尔·托马塞洛（Michael Tomasello）的方法，从有远见的人类学的愿景的角度来看。第一步，有必要彻底检查和重建Tomasello的方法，以确定其人类学的影响，并将其理论的主要支柱引入神学研究界。对Tomasello方法的这种重建将嵌入对神学人类学进化方法相关性的方法论分析中。此后，将进行两个神学人类学的典范研究，因为它们有助于评估进化人类学的范围和局限性。案例研究将分析心身问题和自由的能力。研究项目的工作假设包括一个假设，即各自的人类学的相互插值是可能的和富有成果的。神学人类学可以从考虑特定人类能力的起源中获利，因为它可能会更深入地了解它们，而无需接受减少的自然主义。然而，进化人类学应该对神学人类学的核心见解，尤其是关于自由能力的条件以及要求一个人存在的含义的核心能力。因此，参与进化人类学可能有助于确保神学人类学的跨学科纠缠。同时，对进化人类学的边界和盲点的批判性检查可能证明了神学人类学的跨学科潜力。