Homo Humanus as the New Essence of a Human Being in Heidegger’s Philosophy

In fundamental ontology, Heidegger indeed rejects the traditional concept of a human being defined as homo animalis and homo rationalis. In contrast to this concept, he introduces the new essence of a human being, namely, homo humanus. However, the meaning of homo humanus that is opposed to homo animalis still remains ambiguous. In this paper, I show the distinctive meaning of homo humanus by indicating the fact that whereas homo humanus defined as “man of cultivated land” primarily dwells in the social world, homo animalis proximally live in the natural world.