anthropische

Anthropische is the inflected form of the German adjective anthropisch, meaning "human-related" or "pertaining to humans." The word derives from Greek anthropos "human" plus the suffix -isch. In German, adjectives decline, so anthropisch appears as anthropische in feminine singular and in all plural forms, as in anthropische Merkmale or anthropische Umweltbedingungen. It is used in scientific, philosophical, and general German to describe traits, processes, or contexts connected with humans or human activity.

Two common areas of usage are biology and cosmology. In biology one might speak of anthropische Merkmale des Homo sapiens, meaning human characteristics. In cosmology and philosophy, the closely related term appears in the phrase das anthropische Prinzip, or the anthropic principle, which argues that the observed features of the universe are compatible with the existence of conscious observers. The term is distinct from similar German descriptors such as anthropogen (caused by humans) and anthropologisch (related to anthropology).

In English-language contexts the cognate term is anthropic; more widely used in English are anthropic principle, anthropogenic effects, and anthropogenic climate change. Anthropische remains a technical German adjective, mainly found in scholarly writing when describing human-related aspects of phenomena.