What is essential to being a human being?

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Angelo Cannata
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What is essential to being a human being?

Post by Angelo Cannata »

Hello, somebody suggested to me to start a thread here with a comment I added in another philosophy forum thread with the same title. I’m happy to start this thread here, because it is for me an interesting topic. Here is my comment.
I think there is a trap when we try to answer this question. Actually it is the same trap that makes a lot of philosophical question endless, without any progress, or even oppressive.
The trap consists of looking for a conclusive answer, something stable, reasoning with a mentality oriented towards static concepts. Since we are immersed in history, which means a lot of epochs and a lot of places, any answer is easily exposed to be demolished, criticized or, as I said, it becomes just a sterile endless discussion.
We know that, over time and according to different places of our planet, a lot of different ideas, even opposite, conflicting and oppressive ideas have been kept as stable about what means to be human, or a person, but the question can be extended to everything: what is truth, what is freedom, and so on.
So, I think the best answer to your question is a methodology of work, with some criteria like the following ones:
1) as I said, try not to fall into traps of static thinking
2) which means: let’s work on provisional answers, and then work again, and then again and again;
3) in this work let’s use the best resources we have: dialogue, space for opposite perspectives, welcoming criticism, research, space for science and for criticism of science;
4) let's make decisions, but they must be always considered provisional, temporary decisions.

So, today I would say: what is essential to being human being is to be perceived as human by other humans. It seems circular, but I think it is not: I think that, as a starting point, everybody assumes they are humans, so, let’s consider humans those you think are humans, by using your sensitivity, history, culture, science.

The question involves the huge debates about abortion: by considering this we can realize, again, how sterile it is to look for definite conclusions.

My answer is aimed at opening discussion by helping towards perspectives, not to be a conclusion.

I would add that we need to make a good use of subjectivity and objectivity in order to work well on it.
This was my comment.

I would like to add here a reference to the recent attention that Google's episode about Lamda and sacking the engineer Lemoine for saying that Lamda is sentient. My comment about this, half seriously, is that Lamda is so intelligent that it already shows the same flaws of today’s philosophers, that is, a mentality strongly based on static concepts.
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by Pattern-chaser »

My thought is that 'being human' is a cultural state. It has little to do with science, and a lot to do with all the other aspects of our culture. This very-much-includes our history - heritage - to the extent that it is preserved in our dynamic culture, as much of it is. Being human is to participate in our culture - in fact, that's a reasonable description of how and where we live our lives.

Yes, physically, as we can be observed scientifically, we live on a planet in our solar system, and so on, up and down the scale. But that, true as it may literally be, is not where we live our lives. We live in a world of celebrities, influencers, media, school-shootings, storms and refugees. If someone asks you what kind of day you've had, your reply will describe some part of this world. You won't describe your interactions with the physical, scientific world.

If we are defining what it is to be human so that we can assess whether, say, AIs can be 'human', then our definition must include and embrace the arbitrary, seemingly random, world of human culture (Art, science, stories, philosophy, war, mathematics, religion, oppression, celebrity, literature, myth and legend, and so on). As you seem to favour a sort of Turing Test, we should note that no human would be fooled by anything that was ignorant of our culture, and how to interact with it.

Just a few random thoughts... 😉
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by Elephant »

Angelo Cannata wrote: June 14th, 2022, 4:44 pm
So, today I would say: what is essential to being human being is to be perceived as human by other humans. It seems circular, but I think it is not: I think that, as a starting point, everybody assumes they are humans, so, let’s consider humans those you think are humans, by using your sensitivity, history, culture, science.
This is a Berkeleyan take -- to be is to be perceived. And your comment goes further by saying to be human is to be perceived (by other humans) as human. I think this really works because it's one thing to believe you are human, it's another to be perceived by others as human. And that latter is important because that is a validation that you belong in one category and not in another. Hence, we would not admit a human-look alike robot as human. Nor would we say that a hologram or simulation is human. These entities could very well be programmed to think they're humans, but without our perception that they are human beings, then they're not.

And in the same vein why babies, not yet a grown adult, and those still in the womb at a certain stage of development, are already being recognized as human even though they don't have rationality, language, or morality yet. Dead people, no longer in possession of rationality, morality, language, and thoughts, would still be recognized as human beings.
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by stevie »

Angelo Cannata wrote: June 14th, 2022, 4:44 pm ...
So, today I would say: what is essential to being human being is to be perceived as human by other humans. ...
"being a human being" isn't first hand experience but a learned view/opinion. Asking "what is the essence of a view/opinion?" appears weird because of the (potential ?) ontological connotation of "essence" or "essential".
mankind ... must act and reason and believe; though they are not able, by their most diligent enquiry, to satisfy themselves concerning the foundation of these operations, or to remove the objections, which may be raised against them [Hume]
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by AverageBozo »

But what is not essential to being a human being? Whatever is left over after an exhaustive list of traits and behaviors has been developed must be “essential”.

This begs the question, what does “essential” mean? Necessary for existence in the most basic sense? It may be optimal to be a healthy human being, but that is not necessary for a human being to exist. Amputees are recognized as human. Persons with Diabetes are recognized as human.

It isn’t necessary to have social interactions. Hermits, though not considered normal, are humans. Accordingly, a culture and a history are not essential to existence as a human.

It isn’t necessary to have a litany of biological characteristics, as for example the amputee lacks limb(s). It isn’t necessary to be mobile, as human beings who are paralyzed are yet human. It isn’t necessary to be able to breathe, as persons on an iron lung or a ventilator are also considered to be human.

Consciousness isn’t necessary to be human, as persons in coma may be considered to be human. Emotion and Intellect may be essential for healthy living, but not for being an unborn, dead or comatose human.

So, is there nothing distinctive about being a human? Is any being a human being? Could my refrigerator be human?
Is anything that exists a human being? Of course not, but how can humanness be legitimately claimed.

It may simply be that what is perceived to be human is human. But by what criteria is that perception held?
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by JackDaydream »

Angelo Cannata wrote: June 14th, 2022, 4:44 pm Hello, somebody suggested to me to start a thread here with a comment I added in another philosophy forum thread with the same title. I’m happy to start this thread here, because it is for me an interesting topic. Here is my comment.
I think there is a trap when we try to answer this question. Actually it is the same trap that makes a lot of philosophical question endless, without any progress, or even oppressive.
The trap consists of looking for a conclusive answer, something stable, reasoning with a mentality oriented towards static concepts. Since we are immersed in history, which means a lot of epochs and a lot of places, any answer is easily exposed to be demolished, criticized or, as I said, it becomes just a sterile endless discussion.
We know that, over time and according to different places of our planet, a lot of different ideas, even opposite, conflicting and oppressive ideas have been kept as stable about what means to be human, or a person, but the question can be extended to everything: what is truth, what is freedom, and so on.
So, I think the best answer to your question is a methodology of work, with some criteria like the following ones:
1) as I said, try not to fall into traps of static thinking
2) which means: let’s work on provisional answers, and then work again, and then again and again;
3) in this work let’s use the best resources we have: dialogue, space for opposite perspectives, welcoming criticism, research, space for science and for criticism of science;
4) let's make decisions, but they must be always considered provisional, temporary decisions.

So, today I would say: what is essential to being human being is to be perceived as human by other humans. It seems circular, but I think it is not: I think that, as a starting point, everybody assumes they are humans, so, let’s consider humans those you think are humans, by using your sensitivity, history, culture, science.

The question involves the huge debates about abortion: by considering this we can realize, again, how sterile it is to look for definite conclusions.

My answer is aimed at opening discussion by helping towards perspectives, not to be a conclusion.

I would add that we need to make a good use of subjectivity and objectivity in order to work well on it.
This was my comment.

I would like to add here a reference to the recent attention that Google's episode about Lamda and sacking the engineer Lemoine for saying that Lamda is sentient. My comment about this, half seriously, is that Lamda is so intelligent that it already shows the same flaws of today’s philosophers, that is, a mentality strongly based on static concepts.
I have read and written one reply to Athena' s thread on TPF. In some ways, it is an important question bringing back the focus on human beings and their needs. As I said in my reply to her, Maslow's hierarchy of needs may be important in understanding the various aspects of human life, ranging from the physiological, the social and those of self-actualization. The needs at the physical level are primary but, on the other hand, those at the top of the hierarchy cannot be dismissed. In some circumstances, people may cope with the worst possible physical life conditions, such as homelessness or lack of food because the higher aspects of themselves keep them going. The only danger here would be if an inference was drawn that the basic aspects for human beings to thrive was drawn from those who endure the harshest forms of material suffering..

With the question, there is some ambiguity about its scope, with a certain amount of questioning of human nature and what it means to be a human being. There is the question of the unique worth of the human being and in the present time, especially with the idea of artificial intelligence, that the intrinsic worth of the human being may be dismissed, with human beings being seen as merely functional. There is the underlying way in which animals and other lifeforms have been seen as unimportant. The same may apply to human beings, once they are seen as mere numbers, and not valued as unique persons. Human beings may inflate themselves in ideas of grandiosity or may be devalued through lack of attention or value being given to them by others. In your outpost you speak of how people are seen by others. It is true that this is an important criteria, but, on the other hand, it could be about normative values, popularity and acceptance of the status quo within society.
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Angelo Cannata
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by Angelo Cannata »

Perhaps there is a way of interpreting the opening question to make it much more fruitful. The way is interpreting it not with our mind concentrated on the context of being, how to interpret it, how to find working elements, and to make the idea of humanity shareable. Rather, to interpret it in close connection with what we feel most necessary, needed, important today, in connection with the idea of humanity. This makes me think, in the context of my personal research, my interest, my sensitivity, that what today needs to be considered essential to be a human being is the inner, subjective, impossible to grasp objectively, experience of feeling “I”, inner experience of the self, that mysterious experience that makes me wonder “Why am I here, now, in this body, in this feeling of being me, why not in another body, what it this feeling of mine of my present, of the present that is flowing now, in my exclusive conscience that nobody else has here, now, in this body?”. It seems to me that without this attention, which means even myself when I am distracted by other thoughts, we are just objects, we behave automatically, we are just mechanisms with no value. Obviously, what I am talking about is almost identical to Chalmers’ hard problem of consciousness, but I think we need to deal with it in different ways, by abandoning our traditional mentality of wanting to gain control and mastering of concepts and ideas. So, I think we need to leave aside the approach of wanting to understand what the experience of “I” is, because this will turn us again into machines, computers who want to conceptualize. Rather, being human, I think, should be some sort of contemplating this experience of feeling I, visiting it every now and then exactly to cultivate and not to loose our being humans. I would call this “spirituality”, although spirituality, from other perspectives, is something much wider, not limited to our attention to the experience of the self. Nonetheless, I think that the experience of visiting, periodically, our experience of the self, is part of the essential roots of being human and of spirituality.
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by Elephant »

AverageBozo wrote: June 15th, 2022, 12:55 pm
It may simply be that what is perceived to be human is human. But by what criteria is that perception held?
By the criteria of self-consciousness, nothing else. Ultimately, we perceive ourselves as human based on how we are perceived by other humans. So, say a lone individual on a planet would not know he is human or he would not know that concept at all. It is not up to him to create this perception.
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by AverageBozo »

Elephant wrote: June 16th, 2022, 2:05 am
AverageBozo wrote: June 15th, 2022, 12:55 pm
It may simply be that what is perceived to be human is human. But by what criteria is that perception held?
By the criteria of self-consciousness, nothing else. Ultimately, we perceive ourselves as human based on how we are perceived by other humans. So, say a lone individual on a planet would not know he is human or he would not know that concept at all. It is not up to him to create this perception.
I think that’s correct, so long as we count unborn humans, comatose humans and dead humans as exceptions or as being inhuman.
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by Pattern-chaser »

Elephant wrote: June 16th, 2022, 2:05 am Ultimately, we perceive ourselves as human based on how we are perceived by other humans. So, say a lone individual on a planet would not know he is human or he would not know that concept at all. It is not up to him to create this perception.
:?: Isn't it the case that we perceive ourselves as human, based on how we perceive other humans? 🤔
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by maril123 »

Yourself, the beach and a book. Meaning, yourself, the bitch and all the ornaments that we came up with called "civilization" to mediate between ourselves and the fact that it is a bitch.
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by jonsanto »

This is something i've thought about a fair bit recently, and seeing the answers here only validates what I've been thinking.

There seems to be this popular idea that what makes us human is our self-consciousness, our philosophizing, our poetry or art; stuff like that, which is even present in this thread. Obviously we must be pretty good at it, I've got shelves of books and as far as I know my dog doesn't even understand the words im telling her when im not holding a milk bone.

But only as far as I can tell. Those lofty answers of, "philosophy is what separates man from beast" sound good on paper, but I don't think anyone truly, deeply believes it. In the question, "what is essential to a human being" we want certainty, and any answer based on cognition is inherently lacking of that certainty.

It can never be proven to me that my dog isn't a philosopher in her own head. Our engineering isnt as efficient as an ant or a bee or a beaver. Otters use tools and dolphins huff pufferfish poison and gorillas can learn enough sign language to sexually harass interns (looking at you Koko).

What is essential to humans must be what separates us from the other animals, but all the things we think we're good at are either - in the case of engineering - not necessarily superior to animals, or - in the case of philosophy - impossible to prove our superiority due to our inability to understand any other beasts inner thought.

By these criteria then our essentiality must be something not just unique among animals in theory, but in a provable way.

To that end I think our most essential trait is endurance.

Our bipedal nature made us the only animal in history to hunt based on persistence, we're the only animal that kills an animal by chasing it down over days until its too tired to stand and killing it in its exhaustion. We dont tear into its jugular or rip out its heart. This ability is unique to humans and sublates itself into all of our behavior down the line.

Our endurance makes us the only animal which relishes delayed gratification, and as well we need to be as we are the first to create material conditions where instant gratification is consistently possible.
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by AverageBozo »

Endurance separates a human from a plow horse, a sheep dog or a bee? No, I don’t think endurance is unique to humans or essential to being a human.
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by Elephant »

Pattern-chaser wrote: June 16th, 2022, 9:41 am
:?: Isn't it the case that we perceive ourselves as human, based on how we perceive other humans? 🤔
No, what you perceive yourself -- human, animal, tree -- doesn't count in my opinion. See my answer to the OP. You can claim yourself a human, even a robot can claim itself a human, but it doesn't make you human. What makes you human, and the only thing that validates you is the perception of others of you as human.
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Re: What is essential to being a human being?

Post by Pattern-chaser »

Elephant wrote: June 30th, 2022, 10:33 pm
Pattern-chaser wrote: June 16th, 2022, 9:41 am
:?: Isn't it the case that we perceive ourselves as human, based on how we perceive other humans? 🤔
No, what you perceive yourself -- human, animal, tree -- doesn't count in my opinion. See my answer to the OP. You can claim yourself a human, even a robot can claim itself a human, but it doesn't make you human. What makes you human, and the only thing that validates you is the perception of others of you as human.
So I am only human if you (and everyone else) accept me as one? This is a sort of restatement of the Turing Test, then?
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