PhD in General Anthropology

The broadly conceived doctoral study programme of (general) anthropology focuses on human behaviour, action and cognition both in their biological (genetic) aspects and evolutionary, social and/or environmentally conditioned variability. Its general anthropological approach stems from an assumption that (a) it is only a variety and variability of behaviour, action and cognition that can speak of the character of human existence, and that (b) it is necessary to speak of this existence by way of a synthetizing combination of biological-empirical, cultural-interpretative and reflexively philosophical methods. It is supported by the (Anglo-American) conception of integral general anthropology as a discipline studying both biological and socio-cultural aspects of human beings conceived as complex organisms endowed with language, thought and culture (endowed with a capacity of semiotic, symbolical representation). This assumption is broaden by certain aspects of (German and French) philosophical and historical anthropology. Such conception of (general) anthropology takes into account both the diversity of human cultures and common characteristic features of humanity (both partial evolutional processes and general qualities of biological and cultural evolution of man).

Doctoral students choose one of the four specializations of this study programme: a) philosophical anthropology, b) historical anthropology, c) psychological anthropology and human ethology, or d) social and cultural anthropology. General anthropology is a basically synthetic (i.e. combines a variety of relatively independent approaches) and comparative discipline as well as a field that is analytically critical and reflexive. This conception of (general) anthropology uses (according to selected specialization) both empirical (or statistical) methods of biological sciences (or bio-medical sciences, empirical psychology or demography) and interpretative methods of social and cultural anthropology (or ethnography) and historical, or analytical and reflexive methods of philosophical and hermeneutic anthropology. A significant nexus of the study programme is provided by a theory of culture (seen as a semiotic system transferred by social learning), whether it is applied in mainly cultural and constructivist interpretations, or in interpretations drawing from co-evolution of genes and culture, or in studies of culturally conditioned frequency of biological and/or neuropsychological manifestations.