Philosophical Question

Philosophical question... or is it?

What does it mean to be a human being?

 

I will ask my cat and come back to you ASAP but i kind of already know his answer

That is a difficult question to answer.

Personally, I think the answer to this question comes moments before death, and it varies from person to person.

Taking faith out of it, to be human is to be born, grow up, reproduce, give back to society, and die having given more than you have taken. (At least to me)

So what then does it mean to be human if there is more to life than this temporal vessel?

This answer has changed for me over time. A year ago I would have answered that it is to live a good life and be happy.

Now I view being human as a pursuit of betterment. What is the human body capable of, and how can you get there? What of the mind, the soul, and the spirit (if one wishes to view those last two as different entitites or energies)? I view being human as not only pursuing your bliss, but also to spread peace and happiness wherever you go and to inspire others to do the same.

There is a saying "To err is human". So one can say that to notice your flaws and errors is to notice your humanity, and by extention realize what it is to be human.

I have friends from all walks of life. They are all human (that I am aware of. lol) and all view themselves as normal. Some are massivly sucessful, others are less so. Some view faith as a defense mechanism against the real world, others view it as the only path. So we can asume that there really is no such thing as normal, so then we cannot view "being a human being" as a simple, one off answer.

I look forward to seeing where this conversation goes. Ignorance, yet Knowledge. Let us see what we can learn.

According to the [strike]Galactic Senate[/strike] World Congress in Bicentennial Man, the defining characteristic of Humanity is to die.


Rupert Burns goes a little further in suggesting that it includes knowing you're going to die, but not how or when (with the phrase "Welcome to the human condition")

It seems as good an answer as any.



Edit: Another option is the whole Species, Genus, Family etc etc route, aside from the fact that we're the only ones who care and we created the categories based on our best guesses at how living things work and what makes them different from other living things, it too could be a good answer.

My final (?) ridiculous input into this question is to be Human is to sit around with other Humans and worry about what you are, some people even write short stories that turn into feature films that address the issue ( )



So to that end -

Every answer will be as difrent as there are colors on a pallet and just as possible as the color combinations.

I have learned that human is a possibility and can ...CAN be a difference. A untapped difference in some ways.
Human can be a condition.
The ability to share this common connection is a tool I have seen missused and manipulated as well as fed and built.
Martinez focus ( home idea of ours)
Here to be human is the ability to find the place where impossible dies. Our family motto.
As everything one tool can be used so many different ways.
I enjoy my human. It helps me see the bum , dehydrated or the bum with the fresh haircut. My human helps me be , well human .
Some see different , I am glad. Some won't agree with my idea or views and for that I am glad. I use and enjoy my human every day . The good the bad the ugly the wonder the thrills the quick the sharp the dangerous the not so dangerous! Thanks master for the re reminder !

Wescli Wardest wrote: What does it mean to be a human being?

The human experience, being human for me is similar as being forced to do something, there is no alternative. We have to deal with wat we get how cruel it may sound, and I guess it requires patience to do so. If being human is like having no alternative, then it would be similar for other species?

i have to say this is tough for me as a philosophical question because i have basically a biological answer

when i see this question i frame it as "what makes humans different from chimps, giraffe, wasps, or seahorses?"

so my answer would focus on the development of the animal nervous system, the early mammalian brain, then the primate brain, and then the more recent development of the frontal cortex area which distinguishes human brains from those of other primates

but the development of the brain and the firing of neurons is a back-and-forth relationship where learning takes place, the learning results in new behavior, the new behavior results in new brain development

fire and the cooking of food is the best single example of this-- humans used fire for a long time before we began to consistently cook our food, but eventually we figured out that it was useful to cook all the time and basically once we started cooking our meat (specifically meat) we were able to consume far more calories than eating only raw foods, and these extra calories lead to further brain development, which eventually resulted in the "anatomically modern human"

but obviously we had to already be on a different track to have even began cooking in the first place

even today we are discovering how we can focus our attention in certain ways, such as meditation, and that this focus results in new neural pathways which make new behaviors and new habits possible

i guess this cooked food angle is an avenue into a more philosophical way of thinking here, because at this point we could say that FIRE made us human, which takes on a lot more meaning if we consider it from the view of the Prometheus myth where fire is a symbol of all of man's ingenuity and potency - "the gleam of fire that makes all skills attainable"

so maybe human beings are capable of learning new skills?

i think thats definitely true, and i cant recall who it was that i heard this from but at least one researcher makes the distinction that it wasnt our frontal cortex alone but rather our use of language which separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom-- not that we have words per se, but that we have very complicated languages that allow us to build a collection of knowledge, presevre the collection, add to it, and transmit it to others

so we as a species have been using the internet for the last 200,000 years -- in a manner of speaking lol

so maybe its the internet that makes us human?

but then none of htis would have happened if we werent adapted and evolved to cooperate and understand eachother -- its suggested that the reason we can see the whites of each others eyes while other primates cant is so that we can see where others are looking and so that we can better understand each others thoughts and feelings (basically) so that we share ideas and intentions and work together

so maybe its community that makes us human? empathy and intelligent cooperation? or even (omg i cantbelieve imgonna say this) llooooovvee :kiss: :kiss: (retch)

anyway, its a good question

EDIT

heres a really cool page from the Smithsonian on the topic of Being Human!