Moral hypertrophy and degeneration of institutions - Arnold Gehlen’s warning against the consequences of Hobbesian nature

Abstrakt

Arnold Gehlen is the 20th century thinker and philosopher of philosophical and political anthropology. He is best known for his theory of institutions that connects the problems of contemporary man with a reflection on the “initial” state of human being. Gehlen often referred in his research to the works of classics of modern philosophy. His views on human nature are definitely bringing him close to the 17th century English thinker - Thomas Hobbes. What strikes within the comparison of these two authors is Gehlen’s transfer of Hobbes’s assumptions to modern science. The pessimistic vision of modern human relations is grounded on the basis of a careful description of both man as an individual being and the history that shaped him. Certainly Gehlen’s research is an interesting way to modern reinterpretation of Hobbes’s views on the consequences of human nature.