The notion of a philosophical anthropology has almost entirely dropped out of contemporary intellectual discourse, both in philosophy and in anthropology. Among the few places where it is alive as an active concept or form of intellectual inquiry is in Christian (mainly Roman Catholic) theology. There are reasons for this absence, which we will shortly elaborate on, but the virtual disappearance of the idea of a philosophical anthropology is an unfortunate one, as it is potentially a notion that can not only provide a bridge between anthropology and philosophy – linked as we shall see by many common concerns – but also an intellectual space in which many fundamental questions of human existence have been and can still be posed. This essay proposes to look at the history of the idea of a philosophical anthropology, its contemporary ramifications and usages, and both its shortcomings and potential as an organizational centre for the key existential questions marginalized in much mainstream Western philosophy and almost entirely absent from the discourse of contemporary anthropology.