Who are we? The more we know about humans, the less we understand them: the differentiation of cognitive objects fragments them, takes away their life, flesh, complexity, and certain sciences that are considered humanistic drain the very concept of "human".

This work has no relation to the fragmentation of humans. It has no relation to reductionist perceptions (homo sapiens, homo faber, and homo oeconomicus) that deprive the human being of both its biological identity and its identity as a subject.

Edgar Morin attempts to contemplate a humanity enriched with all its contradictions (human and inhuman, self-enclosure and openness to others, logic and emotion, right reason and myth, archaic and historical, bureaucracy and freedom). This humanity constantly runs the risk of degeneration, but within this risk, it can be reborn.

Finally, this book examines the fate of human identity at stake in the contemporary planetary crisis. It is now important to teach humanity its own humanity.