Philosophy Now Forum

this ''case'' I have been working on for decades....
and it's called, "What does it mean to be human?"

Shakespeare once wrote:

''Human being's reason is noble, their faculties infinite, their
forms and movements fast and admirable, their actions angelic,
their understanding godlike''

but look around you, or if you have the courage, look inside of you,
and see what you really believe.... we human beings are a mass of
contradictions... within an hour, you might see one human being
be kind, be evil, murder someone or commit an act of compassion...
to sacrificing oneself for another...

So, given all of these possibilities, how are we to understand what
it means to be human? as I have stated before, I hold that we humans,
we are on a journey, from being animal to being human... or to say it
another way.... from being fido to being god...

for me, it doesn't matter how we got started on this road of becoming,
of becoming fully human... what matters is that we seek that goal
of becoming....

so, what is the "final" goal of becoming human? that is a question we can
face once we have decided upon what it means to be human...

Aristotle wrote, as his first words in his book, "Metaphysics"

"All men by nature desire to know"

but even a cursory look at human beings tells us, that this isn't true...
for many, knowledge is a curse to be avoided...many who are religious hold in
faith before reason....that the only true path to god lays in having faith,
not in having reason....and yet, the entire engagement of philosophy
during the Middle Ages was an attempt to unite faith and reason...
for example, Aquinas entire oeuvre was an attempt to unite faith
and reason....as was virtually all the medieval philosophers...

so what is a possible definition of a "human being?"

I would go with this.... a "A needs base creature"

We are, animals, this is our heritage.. we begin as animals...
if we fail to understand this, we will fail to understand what
human beings are....we are needs base creatures...
we must, must have food, water, shelter, education,
health care, as bodily needs and as psychological needs
we must have love, safety/security, esteem, a sense of
belonging...we can explain much of the history of us, of human beings
and the history of societies and civilizations, by noting that drive
to fulfill our needs as one of the basic drivers of human beings.
individually and collectively.... history, biology, science,
politics, sociology.. as means to understand our needs and
how the drive to achieve those needs drive us...
look at history and the story of people like Napoleon or
Alexander to attempt to conquer the world... those attempts
at conquest is simple an attempt to meet a need...
both personal and collective need for acquisition...
for having more of something... we see this in the need for
having more money, fame, power, material possessions, titles...
the drive for more...the attempt to conquer the world comes under
this heading of seeking the baubles of existence...

we human beings, we are need's driven creatures...
that might be the best explanation of what a human being is...

much of our daily existence is seeking the basic necessities of
being human.. of seeking food, water, shelter and the psychological
needs of love and esteem...tell me friend, what did you do yesterday?
I will bet that most of your day yesterday was spent on seeking out
your needs for fame or food or titles or material possessions or esteem....

I spend my day at work... thus I was seeking to bring in money, to gain
food, and the other essentials of existence... as we do almost
every single day of our existence...if I go to a bar, I might be seeking
to find love or at lease companionship... another need we attempt
to meet...

think of your daily routine and note how much time you spend on
trying to acquire your needs, both physical and emotional needs...

this seeking of needs in fact define what we do everything single day...
and for some, the need to acquire knowledge drive us,
myself included...

a substantial portion of human existence is an attempt to fulfill
our needs....we are needs base creatures...

that is how I would define a human being.......

ok, so now what?

Kropotkin

we human beings are driven to meet our needs and one
such driver is fear... we are afraid, many of seem to be
afraid of basically everything... we call them conservatives...
the list of things that a conservative is afraid of a rather long one,
so I have reduced it down a bit....
(in no particular order)

the US constitution, thinking, communism, women, socialism,
change, atheists, terrorism, the United Nations, globalism, minorities,
liberalism, Muslims, puppies, peace, love, Barack Obama, fun, books,
gender ideology, abortions, knowledge, blue states especially
California, gay people, trans people, anything different from you...

this is a modest list of the things that frighten conservatives....

and how do conservatives fulfill their needs/emotions about
such diverse things? by banning them...by banning books, by
trying to end abortions, by banning gays from loving each other,
(two birds with one stone) by banning such things in schools as
teaching knowledge as in "don't say gay" or banning CRT,
or in teaching about communism.... or perhaps we can think about
this a different way...

when we ban something, say teaching CRT, are we promoting
freedom or are we limiting freedom? it is quite clear that we
are limiting freedom when we ban books, or we ban teaching about
slavery in schools...

in the end, we have but two choices, one choice is to move forward,
to expand our interest, to expand our possibilities, to look forward,
the other choice is to limit our choices and possibilities...
to look backwards...

so we now look at old people, (mind you I am about to turn 64)
we old people have limited possibilities, we narrow our choices
and options because we cannot do anything else...and what new
knowledge that drives our understanding of the world comes from
old people? think about it, in our understanding of the universe,
what knowledge comes from old people? everything single advance
in our understanding of the universe comes from young people,
Newton was 37 when he published his "Principia Mathematica"
Einstein was 25 when he published his 4 "wonder papers"
Nietzsche wrote his "Zarathustra" around 35...

name one who made an advance such as these, as an old person?

I can't think of one....in old age, we retrench, we go backwards,
we think and feel about the past, not the future...

Now this is not about bashing old people, remember I am one, no,
this is about the way old people think and feel about things...
old people cannot advance the cause of knowledge or understanding
because we are too involved in the past and how things
used to be... we cannot think or imagine the future because in
our thinking, we are no longer part of that future...
and now we hit the interesting part, that conservatives share
this fear and hatred of the future with old people...a conservative
has no more use for the future than an old person...neither one
engages with what may be possible in the future because they
are driven, old people/conservatives, by their thinking about the past

a world governed by old people/conservatives is a world that is
about the past, the notions and beliefs are of the past, not of the
future....would a world governed by old people/conservatives
have done what the world of the 1500's and 1600's hundreds did by
going out and exploring the world? In other words, the exploration
of the world done by such people as Columbus and Magellan would
not have happened if old people/conservatives were in charged...
for example, Columbus got his approval of exploration of the new
world from Queen Isabella of Spain, while she was in her 40's...
Old people/conservatives would not have given their approval
because the very idea of exploration is frightening...

old people/conservatives don't explore, they don't take chances,
they don't push the boundaries of being human, they don't
take the road less traveled...and why? because they are afraid...
and fear is a just another driver of our actions or in this case,
non-actions.... there cannot be any progress in a world driven
by fear or in a world governed by old people/conservatives...
because progress is frightening to old people/conservatives...
even today, I don't explore the way I used to, either mentally
or physically, I am held in check by my own fears...that is
what it means to grow old....to be held in check by our fears...
and we cannot overcome those fears.... that is what being old and
conservative means....it has been said, that fortune favors the bold,
but I can guarantee that the bold are young, not old...

this is about the mindset of being young vs being old....
about how we face our fears and master/overcome them....
we old people don't overcome our fears... we become
hostage to our fears...just as conservatives have become
hostage to their fears....

so what does it mean to be human? it means we can, it is
possible to overcome our fears and act, even as we are
frightened by our understanding of the universe...
and being old/conservative means we are unable to
overcome our fears...and take bold steps into the future...

we allow our fears to drive our actions, behaviors..
it becomes a driver of what it means to be human...
and it isn't a positive one...

the question of existence is one of, how do we fulfill our
needs? I have needs, how do I fulfill those needs, both
individually and collectively?

that is what it means to be human... how do we fulfill our
needs?

Kropotkin

so in light of this thread and its conclusions,
what are we to do? As Kant may have said....

we are driven by needs, needs of the body, needs of
the soul/mind... needs such as fear, water, love, compassion,
shelter, esteem, safety/security, hate.... and how do we
"solve" or accomplish these needs is what being human is
all about.... as I have noted before, we old people, we no
longer think big, we no longer explore, and we no longer
take chances... we become and think and feel small...
the large, in thoughts and actions frighten us... so we
think about being small and acting small and thinking small...

but the bold, the daring, the explorer, they act and think
big... no small actions or thoughts for those who have
advance the cause of being human... Hume was daring enough
to tackle the case of what it means to be human as did Kant...
as did Einstein and Newton in seeking the knowledge of the universe
our progress, as individuals and as a species come from those who
think and act big... to advance the cause of being human requires
us to be bold and daring and go out of our comfort zone... and
being old/conservative is not about us going out of our comfort zone
being bold and daring.... being old/conservative means we shrink,
both physically and emotionally and psychologically....
there cannot be any advancement by the old or the conservative...
we are stuck in the past... frozen in time by our fixation on the past...

progress can only achieved by those who are driven by the future,
not by those driven by the past...for the old/conservative are
frighten by such things as progress..... we old people need our world
to be small.. and progress threatens to expand our world.. and we
old people need to be small.. for we are small, in thinking, actions
and in our beliefs...

and the future, to change the future means we must expand,
become large in our thinking and actions... progress means
we must be bold and act large....and that is why
conservates have failed... they are unable to think or be big...
they cannot become big or act big or even feel big and progress
can only come from those who act or think or feel big....

Kropotkin