Das Mass aller Dinge

The Protagoras program of explicit self-care, self-assurance, and self-determination is one of the core ideas of the European Enlightenment and simultaneously of the Western self-understanding. It starts from the finding that Protagoras was the first to dare to proclaim: Since we know nothing about the existence of the gods and cannot know anything about it, we must determine humanity itself as the measure of all things. Or, speaking with and against the Christian Church Father Augustine: We must dare the experimentum medietatis. The attitude in which this occurs is a completely different question, and which people can, may, should, or must be elevated to the measure of all things is an extremely difficult question that should be clarified here. Lenz Prütting's anthropological study describes the emergence of this Homo-mensura statement in antiquity and its reception history up to the present day. It concludes that the Homo-mensura statement cannot be embodied by individual persons, specific types, or certain collectives, but must be sought solely in anthropological structures that are inherent to all humans. This means that philosophical anthropology is the only legitimate heir to the Protagoras program, in order to appropriately honor, implement, and resolutely defend this heritage against all enemies of the European Enlightenment.