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This extract is the first English translation of Hans Blumenberg's posthumous publication Beschreibung des Menschen, which was published by Suhrkamp Verlag in 2006. Based on lectures concerning the German tradition of philosophical anthropology that Blumenberg gave at the University of Münster, the book's basic project is the explicit fusion of Husserlian phenomenology with philosophical anthropology — an attempt to grasp what the human is by identifying its basic structures. The result is a highly nuanced conception of the possibility of human self‐reflection that is at the core of philosophy and of culture as a recipe for the species' survival. Instead of answering the question "What is man?" Blumenberg proposes here a minimalist anthropology that seeks to answer a different question: "How is man possible?" The chapters selected for translation are intended to give readers a sense of the book, little known in the Anglophone world, which in its original German runs to some nine hundred pages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the philosopher Hans Blumenberg (1920–96) must count among the most prolific thinkers of postwar Germany. topics include the most enigmatic figures and one of the last to enjoy the "transatlantic theory transfer" in which New German Critique has engaged over the last half century, and the special issue aims to contribute to its acceleration and place Blumenberg's insights into dialogue with contemporary discourses.