Some contributions to philosophical anthropology from the religious experience of two Discalced Carmelites

Abstract

Assuming that religion is the anthropological essence, the objective of this paper is to reduce the male bias that has taken place historically when defining the concept of human being. To do this, given that a certain feminine vision to this concept expands it and makes it less exclusively masculine, I analyze the poetic work of two Discalced Carmelite nuns such as María de San José Salazar, representative of the Modern Age, and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, representative of the Contemporary Age, both considered legitimately authorized writers to apply their notion of human being to philosophical anthropology. In each case, the analysis focuses on aspects presumed to be especially relevant for women, not always considered as such from canonical philosophical anthropology: the body and the affectivity, first, and the collective awareness more or less related to female identity, second. In both cases, these factors are related to religious experience, without which simply none of them can be understood. The main conclusion points to the need to reflect on the object of study of philosophical anthropology because excluding women from it leads to ontological, epistemological and political problems which are very difficult to tackle.