The Study and Categories of Human - a podcast by Magdalena Smieszek

How do we humans study the human? Hosted by Magdalena Smieszek, this episode of the How We Are Human podcast presents a 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 how concepts travel between scientific disciplines and philosophy in the study of the human. A focus is placed on the interaction between facts and values within the scientific findings as well as communication of the findings to the public. The outcome is that science and society influence each other, through communication of science and its connection with everyday language. Some examples are discussed, namely the study of rape and aggression within disciplines such as evolutionary psychology, and how the social and biological aspects of human behaviour are interlinked. Categorizations of humans, such as categories of race and sex, are also considered in terms of their social and biological sources. Finally, the discussion reflects on what it means to think of ourselves as biological beings, the emancipatory as well as potentially discriminatory elements. This leads to reflection on the interaction of the biological understanding of the human with the social environment.

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.