Abstract:

Gehlen claims that in the light of the theory of the cultures and institutions he evolved from the philosophical anthropology, humanity has entered a crisis period. According to Gehlen, the cultures and institutions in the primary period, which they form with a natural obligation to solve human deficiencies, to relieve the burden and to continue their lives, corrupt and threaten human life along with the modern period. Gehlen points out that the primary institutions, which have the function of providing a fixed background for human actions, began to contribute to the collapse of social order and culture as a result of the solid rationality of modernism, believes that this collapse leads to lethal changes in the human consciousness itself. All of this, according to him, has led to a lost uncertainty by losing the certainty of the human world. The outcome for Gehlen, who compares the primitive cultures with the modern cultures, is that the human being will no longer be able to cope with this form of existence with his own biological structure while living in an industrial life. Gehlen believes that the modern era has rapidly led to a cultural crisis, a technological sovereignty and the loss of autonomy of individual existence. The aim of this study is to expose Gehlen’s views on culture and institutions, discussing how the problems that modernity leads to the end of history.

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