What does it mean to be human?

[DarkRange55]

What does it mean to you?

 

[Unknown21]

An advanced form of animal.

 

[sserafim]

It doesn't mean anything to me. Humanity is overrated

An advanced form of animal.

People forget that we're still animals at the end of the day

 

[EvisceratedJester]

People forget that we're still animals at the end of the day

It's not that people forget that we are animals. It's that people are in denial about us being animals. This belief that humans aren't animals is especially common amongst certain religious groups, like Christians, but it can be seen amongst people of every demographic. I once argued with someone online about this and it was headache-inducing. A lot of people like to think of humans as being above animals or will think of animals as being above humans. It also probably doesn't help that there are a lot of weirdos out there that use the idea of humans being animals to back up their nasty views, such as older men using that excuse to prey on teenage girls.

Humans are just a species of ape that happens to be very intelligent. That's it. We are animals, but we also cannot completely hold ourselves down to the standards of most non-human animal species because we are smarter than them. We have more awareness surrounding our actions so we have no excuse when we decide to things that harm others. At the same time, non-human animals are not pure beings. A lot of the nasty behaviours demonstrated in humans are also demonstrated in other animal species, especially the more intelligent ones. The only difference is that we hold ourselves to a high standard due to our advanced intellect and due to us being social animals. If any other animal species (especially a social one) were to become as smart as us they would be facing a lot of similar issues that we currently face when it comes to unethical and immoral behaviours (murder, rape, stealing, etc).

Being human is something that just comes down to your genetics. It's in your DNA. We are just a species of animal at the end of the day. We are not above or below any other animal species. We are just really smart apes and that's it.

 

[3/4Dead]

man, philosophers have been trying to answer what the huamn condition is since the dawn of time. The issue with defining what it means to be human, especially in older philosophy, was that they didn't understand things we had in common with other animals (ex. Aristotle thought that to be human was to have emoitons)

But, Sarte says that every human has a dark gaping hole inside of them that cannot be filled or satisfied by anything, that we all strive towards fillingt hat hole and thus being truly content, but that it's impossible and that is the unique human condition.

It's not that people forget that we are animals. It's that people are in denial about us being animals.

Since I'm talking about my phil class i guess I'll also mention that we discussed this at one point; we tend to refuse the idea that humans are capable of things like murder, and thus dehumanize those who are, calling them monsters and animals, rather than recognizing the broadness of the human condition, because the idea that we are all capable of deciding to go on a killing spree tomorrow is undeniably scary

 

[xinino]

To snuggle

 

[SexyIncél]

Sounds like you're asking "What are the defining features of humankind?" Attributes that separate us uniquely from all other bits of reality (such as monkeys, quasars, etc)

Or you could be asking "Gimme some profound insights into the human experience, which will cause me to act differently"

For a fairly minimal set of defining features, we might say we're a "linguistic animal". We know of no other animals capable of language like ours. (Underlying it might be the notion of recursion: given two things, you can make a third thing out of it. That gives you language, arithmetic, discrete infinity...)

Of course, we might add more features. (For example: the inability to fly like a bird or swim like a fish; the lack of intelligence to process echolocation like bats; etc.) For cognitive limits, we tend to create games at the edge of our mental capacities

For profound insights... ho boy. There's a ton of those

 

[sserafim]

Sounds like you're asking "What are the defining features of humankind?" Attributes that separate us uniquely from all other bits of reality (such as monkeys, quasars, etc)

Or you could be asking "Gimme some profound insights into the human experience, which will cause me to act differently"

For a fairly minimal set of defining features, we might say we're a "linguistic animal". We know of no other animals capable of language like ours. (Underlying it might be the notion of recursion: given two things, you can make a third thing out of it. That gives you language, arithmetic, discrete infinity...)

Of course, we might add more features. (For example: the inability to fly like a bird or swim like a fish; the intelligence to process echolocation like bats; etc.) For cognitive limits, we tend to create games at the edge of our mental capacities

For profound insights... ho boy. There's a ton of those

I have a question for you

"The issue is nation's, societies and communities of any kind are inherently NT and revolve around conformity of some kind."

Why is this the case?

 

[Meteora]

I have no clue to be honest. I'm asking myself this question ever since I was a teenager. Now I m 46 and still don t know it.

 

[AdamOndiAhman]

idk. to pursue joy and happiness maybe?

 

[SexyIncél]

I have a question for you

"The issue is nation's, societies and communities of any kind are inherently NT and revolve around conformity of some kind."

Why is this the case?

Just so I understand: NT = neurotypical, right?

I agree nations revolve around conformity. Because they're imagined communities centered around a collective identity — with shared cultural features. By definition & tradition, that social structure has some conformity at its core. Probably with a founding myth. Its members browbeat each other for diverging from (what each supposes is) the collective identity, even if they're tbh just making shit up

But that's just a nation. What about societies/communities in general? I don't think they need to revolve around conformity; at least not much. They can value diversity/nonconformism. That requires education & platforms that support nonconformity. Sure, those platforms may have tons of cranks, but all you need is one weirdo genius like Gödel or Einstein...

 

[moshimoshi]

It means experiencing more complex emotions and thoughts than any other creature on the planet. I think it's part of why death can be scary for humans, because we slowly grapple with the concept and come to terms with death over the course of our life. It's the end of consciousness and you either won't exist anymore, reincarnate, heaven or hell, or any of the other possibilities of afterlife. Also it means being more empathetic and aware of our actions rather than viewing the world through a lens of pure survival instincts like what animals do. We are self aware of our existence, of the beauty and the horrors of the world, we can understand things on a deep level and our personalities are very specific to ourselves

 

[Saturn_]

Outlive your fellow man, survive and fulfill your physiological needs, fuck, produce offspring, grow old and die. We were built to be equipped to survive. We were never built to be happy. Happiness is a byproduct of the perception of our biological needs being met. Whenever these conditions aren't being met, we become unhappy once more as motivation to overcome. It's a lifelong battle with no meaning other than to pass our genes over to the next miserable batch of humanity.

 

[sserafim]

Outlive your fellow man, survive and fulfill your physiological needs, fuck, produce offspring, grow old and die. We were built to be equipped to survive. We were never built to be happy. Happiness is a byproduct of the perception of our biological needs being met. Whenever these conditions aren't being met, we become unhappy once more as motivation to overcome. It's a lifelong battle with no meaning other than to pass our genes over to the next miserable batch of humanity.

I agree. I think that the inherent human state is one of lack and suffering (in order to get your needs met, which are required to survive). If you don't drink water, you'll feel thirsty. If you don't eat, you'll feel pain. You're always missing and lacking something: food, water, shelter, etc, and life is all about meeting and satisfying these needs. The human brain was designed to allow us to survive. It was engineered for survival. The biological purpose of life is for us to survive, reproduce and die. Life is just a struggle for survival

 

[ijustwishtodie]

To me, what being a human means is to suffer extremely or at least have the potential to suffer extremely

 

[Ah.ow]

Verifying oneself to programs doubtful if you are humans, like compurers

or being treated as not human/life/sentient, like by people

Or treated as if not robot but maybe a variety of aliens, like in aid programs?