THE “ADULT HUMAN” PARADIGM

Abstract

Introduction. The article presents the results of the research aimed at developing a philosophical and anthropological concept that defines the ideal of “adult man” and has a paradigmatic character. The logic of the research includes the problematisation of the concept of “adult man” itself, clarifying its meaning and outlining the boundaries of its semantic field, while distinguishing between the problem of the anthropological modus of maturity, or “adult man”, i.e. the mode of being and state of a person, which is opposed not to childhood, but to the modes of being and states of immaturity manifested in adults, and the problems of the philosophy and psychology of age. The analysis of the modus operandi of maturity and immaturity in the study relies mainly on phenomenological and dialectical approaches, the first of which was applied to detect and analyse the phenomena of human existence significant for studying the problem and included, in particular, the descriptive and analysis of human everyday life and the socio-phenomenological method, and the second allows us to study the contradictory, mobile nature of man and the development of the state of “adult man”. Scientific novelty in the work is distinguished, first of all, by the bases of the research developed by the author: a complex anthropological concept, with the assertion of the “stratification” of human experience, capable of integrating the plurality of everyday life, and the philosophical concept of subjectivity, as well as the concept of anthropological modus of maturity and immaturity. As a result of the study, the modus of maturity is defined as the full identification of essential characteristics in each of the layers of human experience, as well as the ability to act in relation to the other/others (functioning in relation to the world), as a consequence of the development that realises the unfolding of human subjectivity.