ABSTRACT
On the anthropological concept of culture (according to Gehlen) According to Gehlen's discussion of the concept of environment, 1 culture constitutes a vital condition and stands in the same relation to Man, as the ecological environment does to an animal. Provided that he possesses a certain minimum in the way of 'animal' environmental needs (e.g., the presence of air, water and a few other similar requirements) it is possible for Man, unlike the animals, to exist under practically any conditions that may occur on the Earth; this is because he himself creates his own environment in the form of a culture. 'Culture' in this sense embraces everything which results from the social life of men. Thus we can think of human culture as a super-concept, which includes all social processes as well as all intellectual derivates2 of social life.
