Selbstrealisierung: Anthropologische Konstanten in der Frühen Neuzeit

This article tries to give a survey of anthropological thinking in early modern philosophy, taking ‘anthropology’ not in its modern sense and not even sensu strictu as for example Otto Casman did it in his work from the late 16th century, i.e.: as the physiology of the human being, but sensu lato as a philosophical reflection on the condition of man as an ‘animal rationale’. The arguments focus on three ‘directions’ of the inner movement of the mental and psychological activity of mankind (towards God, towards the mind itself, towards the world), which, taken all together, form the total concept of “Selbstrealisierung” (realisation of the self).