Introduction
We humans are an animal, as such we are subject to all the laws of nature but there are aspects to our existence that makes us different from all other animals. It is those difference that I have called the "Human condition". The effect of living with this condition is quite extraordinary. The substance of the differences are made manifest by the interaction of certain abilities of which one in particular is the most fundamental and from which all others emanate: we are capable of complex linguistic communication that in turn led to the ability of abstract thought. In this piece of writing I explain in more detail what those differences are and why we have them. The outcome of this writing is that it goes to paint a picture as to the essence of our humanity: an understanding of which is in my opinion fundamental to our development and perhaps to our survival.
We humans are an animal, as such we are subject to all the laws of nature but there are aspects to our existence that makes us different from all other animals. It is those difference that I have called the "Human condition". The effect of living with this condition is quite extraordinary. The substance of the differences are made manifest by the interaction of certain abilities of which one in particular is the most fundamental and from which all others emanate: we are capable of complex linguistic communication that in turn led to the ability of abstract thought. In this piece of writing I explain in more detail what those differences are and why we have them. The outcome of this writing is that it goes to paint a picture as to the essence of our humanity: an understanding of which is in my opinion fundamental to our development and perhaps to our survival.
The Human Condition
I find it extraordinary that something of such momentous importance is not taught, and made more aware of. For me an understanding of this condition is like reading the "manual" to being a human-being and therefore should be studied by everyone. As to whether my explanation dose the topic justice I will leave you to decide.
The tree-diagram above is trying to show the progression of thought, but with such a complex inter lacing subject it is difficult to include every aspect and their relationship with each other.
sisideas
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sisideas
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Language, Abstract Thought, Self-awareness.
The Key That Unlocked So Much
I cannot over state the enormity with which I view this one event (all be it a protracted one) that of man learning to talk. I'm not sure if we know how or when man acquired the ability to communicate with language but I would speculate that the evolutionary advantages of such an ability, for a troop hunter gatherer, would give us a reason why it happened. I imagine early man grunting and gesticulating his way round a Neanderthal earth, communicating the whereabouts of a good food supply, warning of some marauding horde intent on pillage and rape. Early man would no doubt, have given names to objects around him for the practical purpose of communicating with the troupe in daily living. He could Inform other members of his troop about things that he could smell, see or hear; a waterfall, the pungent smell of recent spoor, the threatening thundercloud.
Clearly the precise events that took place culminating in man being able to communicate with what one would call a language will be forever lost in annals of time. So one can only speculate as to how it happened, sufficient to say that over a space of time an evolutionary event took place where prior to that event we had but a comparatively simple form of communication like that of any other animal and after the same we had sufficiently complex form of linguistic communication that allowed us to make a huge leap forward in evolutionary terms.
Abstract concepts: the intangible, unlike "labellable" objects and the demonstrable action of a verb, an abstract concept must have had as a prerequisite, a complex language with which to "hold" that concept in the mind, let-a-lone convey it to someone else. The intricacies of abstract thinking would of course not have happened over night and in fact may well not have flourished until the more social living of fixed agriculture and village dwelling.
However when man did acquired the ability of abstract thought, it was inevitable that he would bump into a scrap of knowledge, an awareness, that above all others would define a moment of momentous proportions. A scrap of knowledge that would put man through an intangible metamorphosis, allowing him to transcend the gulf from innocent ignorance to culpable knowledge, (eating Adam's apple perhaps): “I know I exist". No, this is not a variation on a Dacartian theme but simply a recognition of the “moment” when man directed his abstract thinking on himself and in doing so became aware of his own existence.
Although my story is just that an imaginative guess work, accurate or not is immaterial, the facts are that man now, can think in highly sophisticate abstract terms (I believe) as a direct result of language. This change, however it happened allowed man (in a sense) to “talk to himself”; to think. Thinking can start with as simple a concept as “if”, to be able to ask a question of oneself “what if, How or Why.
Our awareness of ourselves: of being a living entity, is just one of those things that we take for granted, a real "so what" and yet it is without doubt the one thing that makes us "smart/clever" and the most successful animal evolutionary speaking, it is therefore perhaps a bit ironic that language, probably initiated as an evolutionary benefit for communication with others, was the "Key" to us becoming smart, possibly more of a by-product, a happy accident of chance than by design.
I cannot over state the enormity with which I view this one event (all be it a protracted one) that of man learning to talk. I'm not sure if we know how or when man acquired the ability to communicate with language but I would speculate that the evolutionary advantages of such an ability, for a troop hunter gatherer, would give us a reason why it happened. I imagine early man grunting and gesticulating his way round a Neanderthal earth, communicating the whereabouts of a good food supply, warning of some marauding horde intent on pillage and rape. Early man would no doubt, have given names to objects around him for the practical purpose of communicating with the troupe in daily living. He could Inform other members of his troop about things that he could smell, see or hear; a waterfall, the pungent smell of recent spoor, the threatening thundercloud.
Clearly the precise events that took place culminating in man being able to communicate with what one would call a language will be forever lost in annals of time. So one can only speculate as to how it happened, sufficient to say that over a space of time an evolutionary event took place where prior to that event we had but a comparatively simple form of communication like that of any other animal and after the same we had sufficiently complex form of linguistic communication that allowed us to make a huge leap forward in evolutionary terms.
Abstract concepts: the intangible, unlike "labellable" objects and the demonstrable action of a verb, an abstract concept must have had as a prerequisite, a complex language with which to "hold" that concept in the mind, let-a-lone convey it to someone else. The intricacies of abstract thinking would of course not have happened over night and in fact may well not have flourished until the more social living of fixed agriculture and village dwelling.
However when man did acquired the ability of abstract thought, it was inevitable that he would bump into a scrap of knowledge, an awareness, that above all others would define a moment of momentous proportions. A scrap of knowledge that would put man through an intangible metamorphosis, allowing him to transcend the gulf from innocent ignorance to culpable knowledge, (eating Adam's apple perhaps): “I know I exist". No, this is not a variation on a Dacartian theme but simply a recognition of the “moment” when man directed his abstract thinking on himself and in doing so became aware of his own existence.
Although my story is just that an imaginative guess work, accurate or not is immaterial, the facts are that man now, can think in highly sophisticate abstract terms (I believe) as a direct result of language. This change, however it happened allowed man (in a sense) to “talk to himself”; to think. Thinking can start with as simple a concept as “if”, to be able to ask a question of oneself “what if, How or Why.
Our awareness of ourselves: of being a living entity, is just one of those things that we take for granted, a real "so what" and yet it is without doubt the one thing that makes us "smart/clever" and the most successful animal evolutionary speaking, it is therefore perhaps a bit ironic that language, probably initiated as an evolutionary benefit for communication with others, was the "Key" to us becoming smart, possibly more of a by-product, a happy accident of chance than by design.
Existence, Imagination, the Laws of Nature
Existence
When early man looked at the nature of his own existence, I think that there would have been two issues that above all others would have had a very profound influence: that of an awareness of his own death and that he had no say in the coming about/creation of his own life. He is, in fact, impotent in regard to his existence. To a highly egotistical animal that no doubt would have assumed the supremacy over all other animals, such an awareness must surely have had a sever influence on his psyche.
Where as all other animals that lack the ability of abstract thought are "locked" in to an absolute belief of the very limited reality of their circumstances, and can never "see" or consider either their death or impotence. But I believe that these specks of knowledge, this awareness of man's limitations (mortality and impotence) allows man to see the "wall" to "the box" of his existence and that consequently, in time would allow him to consider what lies out side "the box" of his reality.
To hark back to the writing "Child to Adult Transition", mortality and impotence (to wards our existence) are issues that our youngsters must come to terms with to day. How we deal with them will probably vary from person to person but as a broad generality it is perhaps just a resignation that gets put to the back of our mind and looked at when circumstances dictate. We in our modern world can, to some extent, get "lost" in the illusion of the mastery our own immediate circumstances. Greater and greater longevity as medicine and knowledge of healthy living play there part.
Imagination in a causal world
To day, an Understanding of the mechanics of our existence, lessens the necessity for our imagination to create an explanation to the nature of our circumstances. But for early man, ignorance and fear set the imagination to look for explanations to these thorny issues of mortality and impotence.
As man looked at his world from the perspective of his new awarenesses, his analytical mind and imagination could view his struggle to survive with new curiosity. What was once just the inconsequential vagaries of living (for animal) have now become the "mysteries" in a causal world: he now knows that his environment is subject to laws, rules of corollary. What was once an acceptance to an event now has the questioning of "how" and "why": it is no longer a "vagary of existence" but a mystery that although the corollary may not be known, an understanding exists, one dose lie hidden, hidden in reality....... but not from his imagination. When we know that events are part of a "cause and effect" every happening becomes mystery to be understood: as such the knowledge of this "causality" sets mankind on his insatiable inquiring quest of the discovery; discovery of knowledge from which the facts of many scientific disciplines will set out the Laws of Nature but until that happens he will fill the gaps in his knowledge with plausible creations from his imagination.
Plains Indians to Norse Gods, Ancient Greeks to Egyptians, Celtic Druids, to the Aztec's and Incas of South America and so many more, all have developed their own belief structure to explain the mysteries of life and death. From a dawns rise and a sun's set to the changing of the seasons, from the failure or success of a harvest to the mysteries of thunder and lighting man sees the "hand of order". and with that personifies this existence of order to become gods: that, which is responsible for the perceived order to his existence. A potent of beliefs still to come.
The Laws of nature
But man's "success", as I have already suggested, is in his inquiring opportunistic nature, which has made him the most "successful" of all animals. We have the ability to pose the question "what", "if", "how" and "why" and from our deduced knowledge of the laws of nature and our imagination can create the industrial, technological world of today. All but gone are the common place mysteries and with them the superstitions and maybe some of the excesses of beliefs: perhaps the perceived frailty and ignorance of our ancestors enforced a degree of humility on them, that is now lost in the present day. Our grasp of the laws of nature may not only have laid pay to humility but perhaps also given us an inflated perception of ourselves even to the egotistical arrogance of "self-righteousness" for in reality we are still, in spite of our achievements, an impotent animal in regard to our existence.
When early man looked at the nature of his own existence, I think that there would have been two issues that above all others would have had a very profound influence: that of an awareness of his own death and that he had no say in the coming about/creation of his own life. He is, in fact, impotent in regard to his existence. To a highly egotistical animal that no doubt would have assumed the supremacy over all other animals, such an awareness must surely have had a sever influence on his psyche.
Where as all other animals that lack the ability of abstract thought are "locked" in to an absolute belief of the very limited reality of their circumstances, and can never "see" or consider either their death or impotence. But I believe that these specks of knowledge, this awareness of man's limitations (mortality and impotence) allows man to see the "wall" to "the box" of his existence and that consequently, in time would allow him to consider what lies out side "the box" of his reality.
To hark back to the writing "Child to Adult Transition", mortality and impotence (to wards our existence) are issues that our youngsters must come to terms with to day. How we deal with them will probably vary from person to person but as a broad generality it is perhaps just a resignation that gets put to the back of our mind and looked at when circumstances dictate. We in our modern world can, to some extent, get "lost" in the illusion of the mastery our own immediate circumstances. Greater and greater longevity as medicine and knowledge of healthy living play there part.
Imagination in a causal world
To day, an Understanding of the mechanics of our existence, lessens the necessity for our imagination to create an explanation to the nature of our circumstances. But for early man, ignorance and fear set the imagination to look for explanations to these thorny issues of mortality and impotence.
As man looked at his world from the perspective of his new awarenesses, his analytical mind and imagination could view his struggle to survive with new curiosity. What was once just the inconsequential vagaries of living (for animal) have now become the "mysteries" in a causal world: he now knows that his environment is subject to laws, rules of corollary. What was once an acceptance to an event now has the questioning of "how" and "why": it is no longer a "vagary of existence" but a mystery that although the corollary may not be known, an understanding exists, one dose lie hidden, hidden in reality....... but not from his imagination. When we know that events are part of a "cause and effect" every happening becomes mystery to be understood: as such the knowledge of this "causality" sets mankind on his insatiable inquiring quest of the discovery; discovery of knowledge from which the facts of many scientific disciplines will set out the Laws of Nature but until that happens he will fill the gaps in his knowledge with plausible creations from his imagination.
Plains Indians to Norse Gods, Ancient Greeks to Egyptians, Celtic Druids, to the Aztec's and Incas of South America and so many more, all have developed their own belief structure to explain the mysteries of life and death. From a dawns rise and a sun's set to the changing of the seasons, from the failure or success of a harvest to the mysteries of thunder and lighting man sees the "hand of order". and with that personifies this existence of order to become gods: that, which is responsible for the perceived order to his existence. A potent of beliefs still to come.
The Laws of nature
But man's "success", as I have already suggested, is in his inquiring opportunistic nature, which has made him the most "successful" of all animals. We have the ability to pose the question "what", "if", "how" and "why" and from our deduced knowledge of the laws of nature and our imagination can create the industrial, technological world of today. All but gone are the common place mysteries and with them the superstitions and maybe some of the excesses of beliefs: perhaps the perceived frailty and ignorance of our ancestors enforced a degree of humility on them, that is now lost in the present day. Our grasp of the laws of nature may not only have laid pay to humility but perhaps also given us an inflated perception of ourselves even to the egotistical arrogance of "self-righteousness" for in reality we are still, in spite of our achievements, an impotent animal in regard to our existence.
It is, of course impossibly to know of what or how our ancestors began to think about. For the purpose of this writing I have picked three topics, the content of which I would certainly have imagined to have played a very significant part. Although I have separated them out into: Existence, Imagination and the Laws of Nature, for the purpose of describing them, they would undoubtedly have had a symbiotic relationship one with another, each one interacting with the other.