Karel Kosik and “philosophy of man”

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In Dialectics of the Concrete, Kosik reintroductes the dialectics of concrete totality(“philosophy of man”) as the kernel of Marxism in order to opposes the orthodox soviet Marxism-Leninism. In other words, he try to create an Marxism with a human face. According to Kosik, “Philosophy in the true meaning of the word is always
concerned with the problem of the nature of man; in this sense every philosophy is at the same time a philosophy of man.”This paper analyses mainly Kosik’s philosophy of man by explaning his key concepts such as concrete totality, reality, everyday life, economic factor, economic structure, especially his conception of culture. This paper holds that Kosik’s philosophy of man is a combinations of some important theories including Marxism, Phenomenology, Existentialism, Structuralism ect., so there is ambiguities in his thought. In fact, it is very difficult to deal with the relations between the power of objective world and the role of man’s subjectivity. It brought out the “Cultural Turn” in contemporary philosophy, justly reflecting the pursuites of the questions of man an world. Kosik’s philosophy of man is one of contemporary cultural theories, of course, it is very value for our thinking.