PASS Scripta Varia 21 - Pontifical Academy of Sciences

THE PLACE OF MAN IN NATURE – EPISTEMOLOGICAL NOTES
ing. Any living being is tensely concentrated on realising the rich potentialities
which are in him. He tends to realise what in him is ‘potential’ (a
word which is preferable to ‘virtual’). To grow is the distinctive characteristic
of the living. But the notion of growth is not only valid for individuals: it
also concerns the tree of the living where the rich forms of life multiply.
Such a vision of life enlightens the understanding of the place of man
in nature. Its unity is part of the force which has been at work ever since
the beginning. This unity is fundamental, but it is not the only element for
anthropology.
3.3. The recognition of alterity
Mankind is regarded by scholars as a new issue, because a human being
is capable of language, in the full sense of the word. The human language
generates access to alterity, in other words to the recognition of the other.
The human being stands face to face with nature. Such a situation comes
up with language, in the widest sense of the word. The ability to designate
is the proper condition of man; ethologists have observed that a little child
points his finger, which animals cannot do – except if they have been
trained to do so. Alterity is made even more obvious when the language is
articulate, and when words are associated with the real world, not only singular
objects, but classes of objects, acts that link, gestures that relate them
to human activity. A human being is then in a situation of irreducible alterity.
The psychological process of recognising others in the human world
is inscribed in such a perspective of the discovery of nature. In the realm of
mankind, the relation is different; empathy does not suffice; a new stage is
necessary, where the dynamics of life assert themselves: which means the
establishment of a social connexion on a basis of transcendence. This dimension
is traditional and is part of universal culture. It appears clearly in
historical times; it is also patently obvious where art displays itself in the
forms that we know; it can also be observed in the fabrication of a tool
which is not limited to its immediate use, since a tool looks forward to the
future, the anticipation of the future taking place in similar circumstances.
Conclusion
The development of science is not limited to a few scholarly pieces of
information locked up in a specialized field. It is an invitation to found a
new anthropology. It is an invitation to revise a certain number of founding
principles of all cultures, since what is concerned here is mankind and the
quest of the essence of man.
The Scientific Legacy of the 20 th Century
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