Anthropology of Relation. Karl Löwith’s Mitanthropologie and the Principle of Disappointability

My paper presents the interpretation of Löwith’s philosophy as the development from an anthropocentric anthropology to a cosmocentric anthropology. The first stage of this development (anthropocentric anthropology) is characterised by the establishment of an anthropological paradigm which takes shape in Löwith’s habilitation thesis: Das Individuum in der Rolle des Mitmenschen. This paradigm is defined Mitanthropologie (With-Anthropology). Since Löwith’s argument is deeply rooted in the tradition of the continental philosophy, I shall begin by outlining this rootedness (§ 1). This will be followed by a description of the basic features of Mitanthropologie (§ 2). Lastly, I shall put forward the idea of a principle disappointability conceived as a necessary integration for the establishment of that ‘responsible relationship between I self and you self’, in which Löwith’s relational anthropology finds its highest expression (§ 3).