The Question and Understanding of the Human - a podcast by Magdalena Smieszek

What is a human and what is humanity? Hosted by Magdalena Smieszek, this episode of the How We Are Human podcast is part 3 of the discussion with Maria Kronfeldner, Professor in the Philosophy Department at the Central European University, and three Master's students, Olesya Bondarenko, Noha Hendi, and Rachel Sanderoff, as part of the course entitled Topics in the Philosophy of the Human and Social Sciences (ToPHSS).

The discussion considers the different ways that the question about the human can be asked, how we can delineate between human properties, relations, and other aspects of the human. We consider how different societies approach the question of what is a human, humanity and human nature, whether from the religious or the scientific discourse. Finally, we reflect on whether the category of human as a historical construct will disappear, and what the subsequent constructs will mean for the relations between humans, humane treatment and human rights.

The ToPHSS course was funded by the CEU Humanities Initiative. The podcast was created by Magdalena Smieszek with the support of the CEU Centre for Media, Data and Society as part of the AudioFiles Project funded by the Intellectual Themes Initiative.