The essay discusses the genealogy of the human being proposed by Carmine di Martino. This
genealogy applies phenomenology to anthropological "autobiography", that is, to the natural history
of man written by the sciences. The reference to the autobiographical and evolutionary account
of ourselves is red in the essay as a kind of Bildungsroman, the novel of formation or
“coming-of-age story” that tells how one becomes a person, overcoming the conflict between
the individual and society, nature and freedom. Through this comparison considerations are
made on the difference between scientific anthropology and philosophical anthropology regarding
how we became ourselves. In this context some critical remarks on Di Martino's genealogy
are outlined and in particular on the absolute primacy of language to understand human phenomena.The essay discusses the genealogy of the human being proposed by Carmine di Martino. This
genealogy applies phenomenology to anthropological "autobiography", that is, to the natural history
of man written by the sciences. The reference to the autobiographical and evolutionary account
of ourselves is red in the essay as a kind of Bildungsroman, the novel of formation or
“coming-of-age story” that tells how one becomes a person, overcoming the conflict between
the individual and society, nature and freedom. Through this comparison considerations are
made on the difference between scientific anthropology and philosophical anthropology regarding
how we became ourselves. In this context some critical remarks on Di Martino's genealogy
are outlined and in particular on the absolute primacy of language to understand human phenomena.
