9 replies to this topic

[Mokata]

What is humanity?
Is it simply your birth or is there something more?


Is it human to kill other humans?
Is it human to save another at a cost ?

Is it human create?
Is it human to destory the created?

Is it human to love another?
Is it human destory others love ones?

What makes humans? Is it two ears , two eyes, two feet, two hands, one mouth, one nose, and one brain? What is the border that declares an human on a no-geneic level.

[theroadstopshere]

If I may quote Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man":

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan
The proper study of Mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much;
Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd;
Still by himself, abus'd or disabus'd;
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great Lord of all things, yet a prey to all,
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;
The glory, jest and riddle of the world.

Man is paradox, lifegiver and mankiller, creator and destroyer, lover and betrayer. Humanity is not determined by the shape or form of its being but by its consciousness, its ability to reason and change. That's all there is to it.

[ValorantX]

Are you trying to be poetic or are you trying to give a concrete definition. If it's the former, I'm out of this; if it's the latte than it would be our genetic material + experiences of the world that make us who we are as human beings. Simple answer, going any further would be asking a completely different question unless you believe in dualism (souls, spirits, etc.)

[theroadstopshere]

Call it poetic if you like, but its my belief that the way to define humanity would be as a paradox whose exact nature cannot be grasped. Humanity is only a word, after all, it means different things to different people. To you, it means physical homo sapiens body and accumulated memory. To me, it means that the being possesses the ability to reason and overrule instinct, the intelligence to learn, and a demonstrated capacity for real emotion.

Besides, wasn't the question phrased in such a way as to draw poetic responses? To simply say "humans are constructs of their DNA and their environment" would fail to answer the questions mokata posed.

[ValorantX]

Well that's why I said if you go any further is to ask a different question in entirety. (ex. What does it mean to live as a human? What does it mean to achieve happiness? What does it mean to live in this world as an intelligent life form?)

[Coca]

The question, "What is a human?" is a complex matter of biology, chemistry, anatomy, and genetics.

The question, "What does it mean to be human?" is a much easier question than the first one, for the answer is simplicity itself.

To ask questions like "What does it mean to be human?", is in itself, what it means to be human.

It is that quality that transcends biology. If a martian from Mars were to ask, "What does it mean to be martian?", it would be an example of what it means to be human. The word "human" itself need not be used to express said quality.

[VaticToxic]

Call it poetic if you like, but its my belief that the way to define humanity would be as a paradox whose exact nature cannot be grasped. Humanity is only a word, after all, it means different things to different people. To you, it means physical homo sapiens body and accumulated memory. To me, it means that the being possesses the ability to reason and overrule instinct, the intelligence to learn, and a demonstrated capacity for real emotion.

Besides, wasn't the question phrased in such a way as to draw poetic responses? To simply say "humans are constructs of their DNA and their environment" would fail to answer the questions mokata posed.

So does that last quality disqualify people with psychopathy from being human in your view?

[Vueiy]

What is humanity?
Is it simply your birth or is there something more?

Is it human to kill other humans?
Is it human to save another at a cost ?

Is it human create?
Is it human to destory the created?

Is it human to love another?
Is it human destory others love ones?

What makes humans? Is it two ears , two eyes, two feet, two hands, one mouth, one nose, and one brain? What is the border that declares an human on a no-geneic level.

Your DNA, bro.

But if you mean in the philosophical sense, with serial killers and rapists being "monsters," for example, the answer's obviously more complicated. See, human beings are intrinsically evil, a fact which most people either don't know or refuse to acknowledge. Most of us aren't on the level of serial killers, sure, but that's also because we have what's called a conscience. We know the difference between right and wrong, but depending on how much we ignore and/or twist our own consciences, we still do what's wrong if we think we can get away with it. Here's an example that's been in pretty much every (shoujo) manga I've ever read:

Person A: I have a crush on Sumgai, will you help me out?
Person B (who has a massive crush on Sumgai): ...
Person A: Is something wrong? Oh, no, do you like him, too?
Person B: No, no, of course not! I'd love to help you!

Person B claims it's all to help out her friend, but at some point she can't give up her "true love," yadda, yadda, yadda. It's a fairly minor offense (so to speak), but the bottom line is she lied to her friend in a (failed) attempt at avoiding conflict. You can try and say that's not evil or bad, but then imagine you're the friend who was lied to when you clearly asked about the conflict of interests.

I rambled a bit, but long answer short is: DNA--oh, and a soul. Whether you're a saint or a serial killer, if your parents were biologically human, then so are you. "Humans" are not such a good group in all that the worst of us get downgraded to "beasts," or anything.

[AwesomeDude2342]

Why is it on pause !!!!

[vivalabyebye]

"What makes you human?" Whoa, this topic has gotten out of hand. I like the Pope reference, is there room for one more in this philosophic party?

 

To me, however, to be "human" is more genetic than anything. If I saw a Martian and someone who looked human on the street, I would say the latter was human. If your question was more sentimental than physical, it depends on values and beliefs.

 

On a non-genetic level, I don't feel it's actually all that complicated to describe what humanity is. It is essentially a name given to our ideals (and ideologies), as is everything else. That's why it's so difficult to describe; it's one of the things that changes from person to person.

 

So, generally, it's "human" to do all of those things. Humans are born into this world, so yes you become one as soon as you first open your eyes. A history of creations has convinced many that humans are one of the very few (some would even say only) creatures on this planet able to create. By that logic, it is also a right to destroy what you have created. And then, emotionally, humans pride themselves in experiencing and expressing their feelings. It is human to love one another, and human to allow that love to drive one to save others at any cost, even the demise of another. But I'm rambling, and may not have even answered your question.

 

What makes me human is really physical, because that's how I think of things. I have two arms and legs and all that and I'm breathing right now, every second, and there lies within me an organ that constantly pumps lifeblood through my capillaries and veins and arteries. But I am also human because I have been raised in an environment where I have learned the importance of a person or place to find comfort with, and the marvel of how tiny creatures can grow up to converse and laugh like any other.

 

I guess I'm human because I feel emotions, though that's unfair because we can't really know whether or not other animals feel the way we do (and to VaticToxic, psychopaths and sociopaths do feel, it's just more subdued and less expressed), but that's how I classify humanity: the ability to feel something, which does not exclude serial killers and others deemed a menace to society.

 

Sorry, I thought I had this all in my head but it came out jumbled.