Interdisciplinary Forum on Anthropology (IFA) is a project born in 2015 and promoted by the School of Philosophy of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, in collaboration with teachers from other universities and cultural institutions. The aim is to promote research and debate on the main anthropological issues, framed in an integral conception of a human person focused in all its dimensions: biological, psychic, cultural, moral and religious. Aware that today the reflection on the human can’t be separated from an interdisciplinary perspective, scholars of different fields – human sciences, philosophy and theology – cooperate with the Forum.
The current confusion about environmental issues is due to the difficulty of understanding man's position in the cosmos, of interpreting his essence and of knowing the order of things. The idea of human ecology is therefore necessary to discuss the relationship of man with himself, with the others and with the whole world. In this sense, the dimension of virtuous living becomes the main educational way for an appropriate use of technology, a privileged tool for cultivating and preserving the “home”.
The so-called crisis of Western societies requires rethinking the idea of the human and going beyond the individualistic and dialectical conception of modern identity. But it is also to overcome its post-modern de-construction. The research on affectivity, starting from several emotional phenomena, allows us to explore new interpretative approaches: for example, we can reflect on the identity that is always in relation, because it is constituted by the other and by the relational quality that the subject has with him or her.
The debate on the relationship between nature, culture and freedom has important implications in ethics, in sociology, in politics and in the human sciences in general. Here is involved, among other things, the question of transmission and reception of values and, above all, is questioned the idea of human person. In order to contribute to this debate, the study of human relationships requires a multidisciplinary approach: anthropological, psychological, metaphysical, sociological and theological.