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ISBN: 1537416456
This book, What is Man, grew out of a need for a single publication which contained under one cover, broadly representative views concerning the meaning of “Man.” The first edition of this book was used for the most part with fourth year undergraduate students, criminal justice and liberal arts majors in the Philosophy of Education course and also in the graduate course Social Cultural Theories, Foundations of Education.
In both of these courses “Man” is viewed as the focal point of education since he is the subject of education—what education is all about. The term “Man” is used generically throughout the first edition and in this new edition to refer to all humans, female and male, because this is the way the term is used in classical philosophy and in the writings of the five philosophers included in both the first and new revised editions to refer to all humankind, female and male.
This book focuses on the question “What does it mean to be human”? unlike other best sellers like John Grey’s Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex that focuses on what it means to be male or female as of year 2004.
The scope of What is Man? Male and Female has been broadened to include the interests of Parents in their parenting, Sociologists, Psychologists, and Psychiatrists as well as pre and in-service teachers and other education administration personnel. All of these professions have “Man” as their subject so it is critical to their practices how they view the “human.” Who or what is it that they are attempting to define, teach, or develop therapies for?
You will note that the resources used as endnote citations all predate 1987 and most predate 1975. That is because I used original sources written by the philosopher himself or a close colleague.
Books listed in the respective Philosopher’s Bibliography that were published after 1987 indicate how that Philosopher’s views on “Man” have been developed by others after the Philosopher’s lifetime.
I published the 2016 third edition to continue to answer two questions and introduce a third:
- What does it mean to be human?
- Who or what is it that we are attempting to define, teach, or develop therapies for?
- What role does the Inner and Outer Light play in each philosopher’s view?
