An Essay on Man

An Essay on Man concerns educational philosophy, with an aim to cultivate students by exploring fundamental questions of both philosophy and education as "What is man?" "What is education?", and by tracing things to essence. Starting from probing into the origin and consciousness of man in this book, Professor Zhang furthers his exploration of man from dimensions of time and space. Sharing his insightful thought on classics, social phenomena and the author's personal teaching experiences, this book expounds questions as "How many egos does man have?", "Is man an animal of symbols?", "What is personality?", "The way of existence of man", "Man's emotions", "Man's education", "Relation-ship between man and nature", "Man and culture" etc. More than seventy years later after Ernst Cassirer published his book An Essay on Man, this book comes with the same title as Cassirer's. From it the reader should be able to get a fresh view of man and education forwarded by a Chinese philosopher and educator. Professor Chuting Zhang was president of Hunan Normal University (from 1986 to 2000). The original Chinese version has become very popular in China, particularly for university students. It's a collection of essays on Prof. Zhang's reflections of man from the comparative perspective of Chinese and western cultures. It will be of interest to educators, philosophers, cultural experts, and students in education, philosophy, and culture, among others.