Description
John Vincent Ferreira?s (1922 ? 2010) most important contribution to the theory of anthropology is his exposition of ?Integral Anthropology? as Philosophical Anthropology. He wanted anthropology to be a vehicle for understanding man in his fullness, and with his various levels of mental activities in art, religion and philosophy.
He wanted anthropologists to avoid the pitfalls of scientism and reductionism, the fallacy of reducing man, for the sake of scientific convenience and simplicity, to something less than he is, by taking into consideration all his commanding mental, artistic and spiritual capacities to fashion his culture and give it a personal and creative stamp. He lived at a time when scientism and reductionism dominated the social sciences and so he often had to move against the academic tide of his time.
Much of the barrenness and monotonous sterility of a great deal of modern scientific writing is doubtless due to the fact that the modern world has cultivated the specialist. A real scholar is one who reads across the disciplines. He knows that minor modifications and basic shifts in the scientific dogmas will affect the whole field of human knowledge. Dr Ferreira was such a scholar.
It is hoped that this book, which contains the major writings of Ferreira, will give the present generation of anthropologists an opportunity to look at anthropology in a broader way.
