Phenomenology of the Human Person

by Robert Sokolowski

In this book, Robert Sokolowski argues that being a person means to be involved with truth. He shows that human reason is established by syntactic composition in language, pictures, and actions and that we understand things when they are presented to us through syntax. Sokolowski highlights the role of the spoken word in human reason and examines the bodily and neurological basis for human experience. Drawing on Husserl and Aristotle, as well as Aquinas and Henry James, Sokolowski here employs phenomenology in a highly original way in order to clarify what we are as human agents.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

360 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[MacKenzie Stanton]

Had to read this book for a college Philosophy course and I found it to be thought-provoking and interesting. This book makes hard abstract topics easy to understand with real-life examples all can relate to.

[John]

This book epitomises everything I dislike about analytic philosophy: linguistic pedantry, unnecessary and excessive use of jargon and a grandiose, anthropocentric idealisation of rationality (humans are "agents of truth"? What a wank). At its best, this book is a lengthy synthesis of Aristotle and Husserl. Most of the time, though, Sokolowski is busy making odd and vague assertions (e.g. the most fundamental human trait is something he calls 'veracity': "it is very deep in us, more basic than any particular desire or emotion") which he fails to adequately support or explain. He also makes a half-arsed and poorly researched attempt to incorporate what he calls "contemporary neuroscience" into his argument, which amounts to more of the same obfuscatory waffle with the addition of a few science words ("DNA", "metabolism", "computer tomography"). Yeah look, don't waste your time.

[Andrea]

Read several chapters and excerpts from this book for a class and they are excellent! I love the easy, simple explanations he used to explain these pre-philosophical concepts. It gave me such a good foundation and kind of eases you into the more complex ideas.