Human as Method in the Thought of Anthony Giddens

Human as an ideal and human as a creature living in the current state of any society are two debatable dignity in social sciences and humanities. This initial separation of these two aspects of human being can make us more familiar with the identity of social sciences and humanities. Thoughts that have produced a multitude of theories, terms and vocabulary in economics, sociology and other fields of science. Anthony Giddens is one of the thinkers who considered these two dignity in his social studies, and therefore, studying his works can show us how to distinguish between the methodological knowledge of human and the human knowledge as a fact. In the first stage, he conceptualizes human based on the theoretical requirements of late modernity, and in another stage, he applies this formulation to the study of human in the recent modern period which he call in late modernity. A person whose personality is summed up in the body and therefore the management of the body is considered as a matter of human agency; Where morality and religion have lost their place as matters of identity, and even the possibility of death entering to shape the personality as the reality of the human world is kept away from the eyes as an obstacle on the way to crush the human and human identity in the late modernity.
The method of this article is based on the review and analysis of those methodological works of Anthony Giddens, in which man is manifested in a theoretical and methodological form. In such a way, when we talk about the role of consciousness, the limits of consciousness, the existence or non-existence of consciousness in the theories of structuralism, functionalism or other theories, it is actually where we see the reflection of human and human consciousness in social sciences. When we talk about structures and the extent of their influence on the behavior and consciousness of the agent, we have actually talked about the forced effects of the environment on human behavior and will. Therefore, in both cases, we have been looking for manifestations of the reflection of the human image in the theories. This method is actually a method to discover the methodological dignity of human beings in the formation of different social science approaches. When these methodological elements of Giddens' view were extracted, an attempt was made to reopen the second part of social science studies that pay attention to human identification, and that is focusing on a person who lived, grew, and his personality was formed in a certain time-space period. He has finally left the world. This second part of human studies is possible based on that theoretical part. And in fact, the theoretical part acts as a method and a model to identify the actual human being. The theory of structuration in Gidden's thought acts as the part of the method of human knowledge, and the knowledge of modern human personality is actually the application of the method in the identification of human reality. Therefore, we see the manifestations of human knowledge in both theoretical and real areas in Giddens' works.
With this definition, the issues that arise for modern man are all part of the second part of human knowledge in social sciences. These issues include the existential questions that arise for humans and are answered or silenced in a social way. The problem of the body as the human self, which in the modern period displays a manifestation of one's personality in front of others. The issue of anxiety and basic trust, which is considered the basis of modern personality. In this case, the management of the body becomes more important than the management of the soul because the essence of the identity of people is manifested in their bodies. Therefore, body management can be considered as being the agent. In this case, another issue for modern man is the issue of ethics. Because according to the institutions that Giddens enumerates for the modern world, which include capitalism, militarism, surveillance and industrialism, ethics does not find a special place in this world. These institutions change everything based on their requirements and leave nothing fixed for human life, and ethics is one of these things. Therefore, one of the elements that is crushed under the gears of the modern world is morality. The term lifestyle also emerges from this; where human is faced with different patterns of modern life and many choices are in front of him and he is forced to choose between them. If there is only one model in front of man, it is no longer possible to talk about lifestyle.
Finally, modern human reaches a zero point where everything ends. And that point is nothing but death. With this definition, the memory of death is an uncontrollable danger for the modern personality, which cannot be controlled and managed, and on the other hand, it cannot be approached in order to gain an experience of facing it and develop the personality beyond it. It is necessary to hide death as much as possible from everyone's view and normalize it in a way that is kept away from our eyes. The end of the modern personality occurs at this real point in life; A reality that modernity does not want people to face; Because the unreality of the fundamental existential security and the fundamental trust desired by modernity is revealed.
Human knowledge in social sciences is not only a content and data, but the main part of human knowledge in social sciences is the methodological knowledge of human beings; Where the main theories and concepts of humanities and social sciences are formed through it. In this regard, Giddens has identified two types of human knowledge in social sciences. In the first type, the ideal man in the world of modernity is studied in a theoretical way that forms the system of concepts of Giddens's structuration theory and in this case the social theory is formed, but in the second type, Giddens uses this theory of human being to explain the human in the modern world.