What it means to be human is that we were born a member of the most dominant race on the planet Earth. Born into the top of the food chain, most humans living in well developed civilizations receive the best food, shelter, medicine, and technology currently available on the planet. For most humans in the modern world, we hardly even think about the things we need for survival, which is one thing that makes us incredibly unique to all other species. But humans have been unique to other species since the beginning of our existence. The incredibly complex and sophisticated human mind is what sets us apart from other species and makes us the most dominant race in the world.
One of the greatest philosophical issues we face as humans is having free will. Having free will is one of the greatest things about being human, and also one of the most challenging. Because of our well developed cultures and societies we have a great ability to make millions of choices that carve our fate. The amount of choice we have as humans is amazing, but many choices we make are influenced or constricted by many things like our beliefs, morality, and other humans. Your moral beliefs, the people who influence you, the rules of society, and even money can greatly constrict the choices you make to the point where it seems like you have no free will at all. Some believe you have no control over your destiny as a human, but the remarkable amount of free will that we possess throughout our lives is part of what makes us human.
The quote, "Our insistence on cognitive knowing may have already robbed us of some of our capacity for being human" is quite untrue. It is true that we have lost touch with some of our ancient primal behaviors and ways of survival, but we have not lost touch with our human nature. Our insistence on cognitive knowing is a great part of human nature and what it means to be human. Since the first humans were roaming the earth, they used their greater intelligence to survive. Our survival instinct combined with our insistence for cognitive knowing and development led us to make and use tools, weapons, shelters, and even create societies. During the past few thousand years humans have had the greatest increase of cognitive knowing ever, leading to incredible advances in technology, culture, population, and way of life across the world. Even though humans are not living like we were thousands of years ago, we still have the same primal instincts that we did back then and have always had since the beginning of human-kind. It is very untrue to say that we have been robbed of our capacity for being human, because our insistence for cognitive knowing is one of the biggest things that make us human.
I agree with the second paragraph on how we have so much free will. It's something most people don't even realize until someone points it out. So many different things can effect our choices too. It's crazy to think how much more choice we have then every other animal on this planet.
ReplyDeleteI also completely agree with the second paragraph. I think we are in utter shock of having so much choice, like the way you are in utter shock when you turn 18 and don't have to go to highschool every year like you have for the past 14 years of your life. Even looking at other countries, we have so much more free will. In places like Europe the government takes care of so much for you, taking money out of every paycheck to cover various medical cares, retirement funds for individuals, and making the country itself better for the individuals living in it. Sometimes I wonder if that would be better in our country; to allow, somewhat, us to be taken care of, since so many people neglect insurances and healthcare not only for themselves, but for their children.
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