Oh, solve the riddle of life for me, A painfully old riddle…
Tell me, what is a person?
G. Heine
Who are you, human?
The pinnacle of evolution? King of nature? Space conqueror? The most intelligent being? An atom in the universe? Creator or destroyer? Where did it come from on planet Earth?
Sciences that study humans have been looking for answers to these and other questions for many years, researchers and thinkers have been puzzling over them since ancient times.
In different cultures, religions, philosophies, there is a huge variety of views on the nature of man and his interaction with the physical and mental world. This set can be considered as the primary development of the human sciences.
Why not one science?
There is a science of man anthropology, but it cannot represent the entire spectrum of knowledge, covering only the biological, evolutionary and separately philosophical aspects.
What is human knowledge?
According to the classification of V. G. Borzenkov, up to 200 disciplines can be counted, which are sciences that study a person.
They can be grouped into several blocks:
- the science ofman as a biological substance (anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, primatology, genetics, paleontology, etc.);
- sciences about humanity (demography, sociology, ethnography, political science, economics, etc.);
- the science of man and his interaction with nature and space (ecology, biogeochemistry, space medicine, etc.);
- sciences about a person as a person (pedagogy, ethics, psychology, aesthetics, etc.);
- sciences that consider a person as a subject of activity (ergonomics, engineering psychology, heuristics, etc.).
These disciplines do not exist by themselves: they overlap many times, the methods of some are widely used in others. For example, the study of physiology with the help of certain devices has become widely used in practical psychology and even forensics (lie detector). There are also other approaches to the classification of what sciences study a person.
Man as an object of study
Each science of man is looking for patterns in the diversity of his nature and the uniqueness of individual manifestations.
A person's knowledge of himself as a species of Homo sapiens, as a subject of social relations, as a carrier of intellectual and emotional abilities, as a unique individuality is a difficult task.
She will never have a single solution, despite the we alth of knowledge she has gained since the dawn of the human sciences. The more interesting the learning process.
Europeanapproach
Public thought in the 20th century made philosophical anthropology its most influential direction.
In this teaching, a person is the central axis around which all the processes of being in the world take place. "Man is the measure of all things" - this ancient principle of the philosophy of Protagoras gives rise to the theory of anthropocentrism.
Christian ideology, one of the foundations of European culture, also affirms the human-centric idea of earthly life. According to it, it is believed that the Almighty, before creating man, prepared the conditions on Earth for his existence.
How about in the East?
Oriental schools of philosophy, on the contrary, never put a person at the center of the universe, considering him a part, an element of nature, one of its levels.
Man, according to these teachings, should not oppose the perfection of nature, but only follow it, listening, integrating into its rhythms. This allows you to maintain mental and physical harmony.
Everything is known?
Sciences about the human body with the help of modern technologies are developing at a cosmic speed. Research is striking in its boldness and breadth, and sometimes frightening in its lack of ethical framework.
Methods for extending life, the finest operations, transplantation, cloning, growing organs, stem cells, vaccines, microchipping, devices for diagnostics and treatment - this could not even be dreamed of by medieval doctors and anatomists who died at the stake of the Inquisition for their craving for knowledge and desirehelp the sick!
It seems that now everything in a person has been thoroughly studied. But for some reason people keep getting sick and dying. What else has science not done in human life?
Human Genome
Genetic scientists from many countries worked together for several years and almost completely deciphered the human genome. This painstaking work continues, new tasks are emerging that have to be solved by current and future researchers.
Colossal work is needed not just as "pure" knowledge, on its basis new steps are being made and will be made in medicine, immunology, gerontology.
Power of thought
What sciences study a person and his abilities?
Research on the activity of the brain shows that a person makes very little use of its capabilities. Achievements of modern neurophysiology, psychology, pedagogy help to develop many hidden abilities.
Methods for the development of mental activity are increasingly being introduced into everyday life. What seemed like a miracle, a hoax (for example, the ability to quickly mentally count), is now easily mastered by preschoolers in special classes.
Other techniques developed in science labs may give humans superpowers to survive extreme environments such as space flight or combat.
Stop being a conqueror of nature
The end of the last millennium was marked by an unprecedented increase in technological progress. It seemed that everything was subject to a person: to move mountains, to turn back rivers,ruthlessly devastate the subsoil and destroy forests, pollute the seas and oceans.
The global cataclysms of recent decades show that nature does not forgive such an attitude. In order to survive as a species, humanity needs to take care not only of individual dwellings, but also of our common home - planet Earth.
One of the most important sciences is ecology, showing how, destroying nature, a person harms himself. But the implementation of the recommendations developed by scientists, allows you to save and restore the environment.
Man and Society
War, urban overcrowding, famine, epidemics, natural disasters are causing suffering to huge masses of people.
Social sciences and institutions dealing with issues of demography, political science, religious studies, philosophy, economics, clearly cannot cope with the information and cannot make their recommendations convincing for politicians, heads of state, authorities at various levels.
Peace, tranquility, prosperity remain a pipe dream for most people.
But in the age of the Internet, many knowledges become much closer and allow those who have access to the resource to apply them in their lives, find like-minded people, help themselves and their loved ones survive in difficult times and keep the Human in themselves.
Returning to one's history, to the roots, to the knowledge accumulated by previous generations, returning to the origins of morality and ethics, to nature gives a chance for the life of the nextgenerations.
Open question
The versatility of the manifestations and activities of each individual person, the entire human community as a whole makes it extremely difficult to study them.
And hundreds of disciplines are not enough to explore these processes. The science of man is an almost inexhaustible source of mysteries.
It turns out that, despite the development of technology, humanity has not been able to know itself by the methods of biochemistry, physiology, mathematical data processing.
Philosophical questions remain eternal. We still do not know exactly why a person appeared, who was his ancestor, what is the meaning of his life, whether immortality is possible. Who can answer?
