Il circolo dell'azione nella teoria antropologica di Arnold Gehlen

To distinguish human nature from animal nature, Arnold Gehlen employs the concept of being an agent and the notion that human behaviour is regulated by a special mechanism that enhances its peculiarities, namely, the circle of action.The principle of the circle of action was certainly inspired by the work of the neurophysiologist Viktor von Weizsäcker, who uses a similar concept to describe the performance of any biological act; Gehlen, however, insists in restricting its function to the anthropological field. This legitimates the suspicion that for him human difference is not something that calls for explanation, but rather a prejudice to be upheld (as his rejection of Darwinian theories would seem to bear out).[Publisher's text]