Mark Galliker explores the relationship between images of humanity and ways of life through representations from philosophy and psychology, from antiquity to the present. Eighteen different images of humanity are presented and examined for their practical relevance. Among other questions, the following are addressed: What distinguishes humans from animals? What is the specifically human aspect of humanity? Why have the former figures of power and reason become the powerless, merely reactive subjects of modern experimental psychology? To what extent do psychological findings influence ways of life, and to what extent does the underlying image of humanity affect them? Which image of humanity is most widely disseminated within the value community of the modern Western world?.