The Human Condition: What Defines Us?

[ifyco10]

Does man have a certain ability or characteristic that defines him? Perhaps a characteristic that, if taken away, would also take away our humanity?

 

[dekoi]

Yes. Natural law governs us. It is our specific nature. Argument from analogy: a pen's nature is to be written with, to make pen marks; it will always be a pen, it wil never be a pencil --- similarly, a human's nature is to follow the good, and to avoid the evil, it will never be a mindless, souless animal.

 

[Math Is Hard]

I think Mark Twain once said something like, "Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to."

 

[selfAdjoint]

Yes. Natural law governs us. It is our specific nature. Argument from analogy: a pen's nature is to be written with, to make pen marks; it will always be a pen, it wil never be a pencil --- similarly, a human's nature is to follow the good, and to avoid the evil, it will never be a mindless, souless animal.

Man's nature is never to be satisfied with any specific statement of his nature.

 

[dekoi]

Man's nature is never to be satisfied with any specific statement of his nature.

Perhaps, although it matters how one interprets your statement. If one is never satisfied with nature, one would never be satisfied with good nor evil. And of course, that is true -- humans naturally strive for perfection.

 

[Twistedseer]

Does man have a certain ability or characteristic that defines him?

The ability to create

Without that are we Human.

 

[wuliheron]

In countless respects, our abilities such as language, reason, and whatnot are magnatudes beyond those of other animals. However the only unique distinction I am aware of is that man is the only animal that can run after another running animal and accurately hit it with a stick or a rock. I wouldn't say that's what makes us human though. Our humanity in my opinion comes from the wide range of emotions we are capable of and from the shere capacity of our minds.

 

[Philocrat]

Does man have a certain ability or characteristic that defines him? Perhaps a characteristic that, if taken away, would also take away our humanity?

NATURAL LAW (Need is the basis of all relations)

NATURAL LAW (Need is the basis of all creation)

NATURAL LAW (Need is a reason to act)

All this is rigorously grounded as:

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FOR ANYTHING TO BE PERFECT AND SELF-SUFFICIENT, IT MUST POSSESS NEITHER NEEDS THAT ARE EXTERNALLY FULFILLABLE NOR NEEDS THAT ARE EXTERNAL DESIRABLE, FOR TO DO SO WOULD INEVITABLY INVITE BACK CAUSAL RELATIONS (that is the need to relate to something outside oneself).
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From this foundational thesis, everything else is deucible within the scope of the human reality.

The formula is this:

Needs = reasons

(reason to be) or (reason to change) etc.

Reasons are classified into two types:

1) The Unnecessarily necessary Reasons (ephemeral in scope and in substance)

2) The Necessarily necessary Reasons (permanent in scope and in substance)

In this sense you could postulate that:

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SOME REASONS ARE MORE NECESSARY THAN OTHERS!
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This means that although a thing can have many reasons attributed to it, yet only some may be construed as essential...and the remainder could very well pass as trivial. In philosophy (and perhaps in other disciplines too), we look out for the essentials and discount the trivials!