we were told to write 1000+ words explaining what it "means to be human", which is obviously a matter for philosophy. the class kinda sucked in general, it was closer to creative writing than anything else. part of me thinks the paper i wrote is kinda cringe but maybe you guys will like it. i was just riffing + plagiarizing blood meridian. hopefully you find it entertaining, if nothing else.
"What does it mean to be human? A non-starter. No satisfying answer could ever be given. As well ask men what it means to be stone. How could such a question be answered? Meaning cannot be ascribed to a physical thing, it is not an intrinsic attribute or feature. “Meaning” is an abstraction used to describe other abstractions. What is the meaning of a word? What is the meaning of art? These questions can be answered. What is the meaning of earth? What is the meaning of wind? These are incoherent thoughts. You cannot arrange words like these in a sentence and convey anything. To even say that humans are without meaning would necessitate the existence of a negative state of meaning, as if it could be gained or lost like temperature or velocity. However, even that is being too generous, because it is not possible for anything to be in a truly “negative” state. Things can be or not be, but not “anti”. Even so-called “antimatter” is just a turn of phrase, it is not literally an inversion of normal matter. There is no anti-sun.
Additionally, this is a matter for philosophy, not psychology. Interrogating metaphysics is not covered by the DSM-V. What problem is this question trying to solve? To rephrase it as something that can actually be addressed: Do living beings, and more specifically humans, serve a purpose? If so, what is that purpose? Outside of themselves, no. There is nothing inanimate that necessitates the existence of the animate. Life exists as a reaction to the environment it inhabits. Living is the continuous, unbroken act of adaptation. Life is relational. What constitutes purpose for such a being? What is purpose in this context? Like meaning, purpose is also an abstract concept, with the additional quality of informing the attributes of created physical objects. Art has meaning, but no purpose. A painting, however, does have a purpose. It conveys the art. It translates an abstraction into a tangible form. This is also relational. What is the purpose of a car? It is a form of conveyance for people. But what purpose does a car serve in and of itself? How is it judged within a vacuum? In this case, it has no purpose. A car exists to be used. Purpose is granted to it, not a natural quality of it. Purpose is a way to give meaning to physical things via interaction with an intelligent form. Purpose is intent. Maslow’s hierarchy scratched at the surface of this.
So what is the intent of life? To reproduce. But why does life live? Is this not circular reasoning? The failure is to presume that life is a means rather than an end in itself. Life exists because the physical laws that govern the universe promote self-propagation. Mass attracts mass. Chemicals chain reactions. Life multiplies. As time advances, all things bend towards an increasing complexity of interactions. Life that does not reproduce ceases to live entirely. There is no neutral state. It could even be the case that life begets a new form of self-propagation distinct from itself, just as chemicals self-propagated to form life. all living things evolved to live and reproduce as effectively as possible, this is meaning transmuted to purpose. We are born to want this, or face extinction otherwise.
Working backwards, if the intent of life is to reproduce, what is the purpose served by this interaction? What is enabled by reproduction? A refinement of adaptation. The more life reproduces, the better it gets at living. Efficiencies are developed as experience is gained. Resources accumulate. Totally new interactions become possible. With more emerging interactions comes new purpose. Former abstractions are thereby translated to reality. Meaning is generated. Man has no meaning because man made meaning. Man exists to transmute the inanimate into a form with purpose. To bestow meaning where there was none previously. Man is not subordinate to his surroundings, his surroundings are subordinate to him. This is why meaning is not intrinsic to him, because meaning can only be given by the supreme authority of all natural things, which is man himself. By giving meaning to a thing, you take ownership of it. Where previously it was an unknown quantity, it has now become a defined entity with a purpose in relation to man. It is thereby given consent to exist in that form for man’s benefit. Therefore, whatever exists without man’s knowledge, exists without man’s consent. If man is to be the suzerain of existence, even the smallest of things must be routed out and made to stand naked before him. Through his efforts to catalogue all anonymous motes of the inanimate and the living, man strips them of their autonomy and renders them inert, save for his purposes. The endless process of seeking mastery over creation imbues all with meaning and enhances man’s life equally. New purpose is found, always.
It could be said that man’s greatest threat is the previously mentioned autonomy of things. If his life is enhanced by knowledge, it follows that his life is degraded by ignorance until he erodes to nothing. And just as there is no neutral state to life, neither is there a neutral state to knowledge, for any unknown unknown could be his end. The choice to set about the task of documenting all is itself the granting of the mandate to do so. By way of such self-granting, man is also made duty-bound to follow through. By what other process could meaning and purpose be attributed to the vastness inhabited by all things? Man’s very nature is at once the authority, and the justification, and the method. And if man’s nature is to take ownership, and if no other thing has a competing nature, then nature itself is meant to subordinate to man. Just as life self-propagates, so too does the hierarchy of all things living or otherwise. Knowing this, and knowing that living is the means and life is the end, and knowing that life is relational as is meaning and purpose, it can be said that the end of all things is to be rightly placed and maintained in that great hierarchy, by means of man’s nature to study these things and give them purpose in it."
"What does it mean to be human? A non-starter. No satisfying answer could ever be given. As well ask men what it means to be stone. How could such a question be answered? Meaning cannot be ascribed to a physical thing, it is not an intrinsic attribute or feature. “Meaning” is an abstraction used to describe other abstractions. What is the meaning of a word? What is the meaning of art? These questions can be answered. What is the meaning of earth? What is the meaning of wind? These are incoherent thoughts. You cannot arrange words like these in a sentence and convey anything. To even say that humans are without meaning would necessitate the existence of a negative state of meaning, as if it could be gained or lost like temperature or velocity. However, even that is being too generous, because it is not possible for anything to be in a truly “negative” state. Things can be or not be, but not “anti”. Even so-called “antimatter” is just a turn of phrase, it is not literally an inversion of normal matter. There is no anti-sun.
Additionally, this is a matter for philosophy, not psychology. Interrogating metaphysics is not covered by the DSM-V. What problem is this question trying to solve? To rephrase it as something that can actually be addressed: Do living beings, and more specifically humans, serve a purpose? If so, what is that purpose? Outside of themselves, no. There is nothing inanimate that necessitates the existence of the animate. Life exists as a reaction to the environment it inhabits. Living is the continuous, unbroken act of adaptation. Life is relational. What constitutes purpose for such a being? What is purpose in this context? Like meaning, purpose is also an abstract concept, with the additional quality of informing the attributes of created physical objects. Art has meaning, but no purpose. A painting, however, does have a purpose. It conveys the art. It translates an abstraction into a tangible form. This is also relational. What is the purpose of a car? It is a form of conveyance for people. But what purpose does a car serve in and of itself? How is it judged within a vacuum? In this case, it has no purpose. A car exists to be used. Purpose is granted to it, not a natural quality of it. Purpose is a way to give meaning to physical things via interaction with an intelligent form. Purpose is intent. Maslow’s hierarchy scratched at the surface of this.
So what is the intent of life? To reproduce. But why does life live? Is this not circular reasoning? The failure is to presume that life is a means rather than an end in itself. Life exists because the physical laws that govern the universe promote self-propagation. Mass attracts mass. Chemicals chain reactions. Life multiplies. As time advances, all things bend towards an increasing complexity of interactions. Life that does not reproduce ceases to live entirely. There is no neutral state. It could even be the case that life begets a new form of self-propagation distinct from itself, just as chemicals self-propagated to form life. all living things evolved to live and reproduce as effectively as possible, this is meaning transmuted to purpose. We are born to want this, or face extinction otherwise.
Working backwards, if the intent of life is to reproduce, what is the purpose served by this interaction? What is enabled by reproduction? A refinement of adaptation. The more life reproduces, the better it gets at living. Efficiencies are developed as experience is gained. Resources accumulate. Totally new interactions become possible. With more emerging interactions comes new purpose. Former abstractions are thereby translated to reality. Meaning is generated. Man has no meaning because man made meaning. Man exists to transmute the inanimate into a form with purpose. To bestow meaning where there was none previously. Man is not subordinate to his surroundings, his surroundings are subordinate to him. This is why meaning is not intrinsic to him, because meaning can only be given by the supreme authority of all natural things, which is man himself. By giving meaning to a thing, you take ownership of it. Where previously it was an unknown quantity, it has now become a defined entity with a purpose in relation to man. It is thereby given consent to exist in that form for man’s benefit. Therefore, whatever exists without man’s knowledge, exists without man’s consent. If man is to be the suzerain of existence, even the smallest of things must be routed out and made to stand naked before him. Through his efforts to catalogue all anonymous motes of the inanimate and the living, man strips them of their autonomy and renders them inert, save for his purposes. The endless process of seeking mastery over creation imbues all with meaning and enhances man’s life equally. New purpose is found, always.
It could be said that man’s greatest threat is the previously mentioned autonomy of things. If his life is enhanced by knowledge, it follows that his life is degraded by ignorance until he erodes to nothing. And just as there is no neutral state to life, neither is there a neutral state to knowledge, for any unknown unknown could be his end. The choice to set about the task of documenting all is itself the granting of the mandate to do so. By way of such self-granting, man is also made duty-bound to follow through. By what other process could meaning and purpose be attributed to the vastness inhabited by all things? Man’s very nature is at once the authority, and the justification, and the method. And if man’s nature is to take ownership, and if no other thing has a competing nature, then nature itself is meant to subordinate to man. Just as life self-propagates, so too does the hierarchy of all things living or otherwise. Knowing this, and knowing that living is the means and life is the end, and knowing that life is relational as is meaning and purpose, it can be said that the end of all things is to be rightly placed and maintained in that great hierarchy, by means of man’s nature to study these things and give them purpose in it."
At least that's what I've seen successful psychologists in my country do
