Human cognition derives from a unique situation, which is social in its very origins. The difficulties that have been encountered by a sociology of cognition, however, must be taken into account. At the beginning of the modern era the consciousness of convergence became radical in that it now claimed the status of a founding principle for knowledge in general. Under the impact of an anthropological constitution that assures man's access to the real object, epistemological problems become less important and the consciousness of convergence is neutralized. Arnold Gehlen's design of a philosophical anthropology is the one best known. It documents both the contribution of philosophical anthropology to epistemological progress and its deficiencies. Philosophical anthropology never intended to promote a materialist epistemology. The strategy of genetic naturalism solves in a rather surprising manner the central problem of all modern epistemology — the relationship of subject and object.