An Essay On Human Being And Existence

Anyone who ponders on existence, touches upon the whole of life. But how to ponder on that which has befallen us even before we have uttered a first word? And how do we get a grip on that which must elude us in spite of all our protest or regret? The trilogy What Obligates Us raises the question about the ethical foundation of the human condition. This first part discusses the exceptional nature of human beings. In their broken relationship to themselves and their surroundings, humans learn of an indebtedness. From this simple truth they cannot hide without alienating themselves from their own being.

In Kant's Human Being, Robert B. Louden continues and deepens avenues of research first initiated in his highly acclaimed book, Kant's Impure Ethics. Drawing on a wide variety of both published and unpublished works spanning all periods of Kant's extensive writing career, Louden here focuses on Kant's under-appreciated empirical work on human nature, with particular attention to the connections between this body of work and his much-discussed ethical theory. Kant repeatedly claimed that the question, "What is the human being" is philosophy's most fundamental question, one that encompasses all others. Louden analyzes and evaluates Kant's own answer to his question, showing how it differs from other accounts of human nature. This collection of twelve essays is divided into three parts. In Part One (Human Virtues), Louden explores the nature and role of virtue in Kant's ethical theory, showing how the conception of human nature behind Kant's virtue theory results in a virtue ethics that is decidedly different from more familiar Aristotelian virtue ethics programs. In Part Two (Ethics and Anthropology), he uncovers the dominant moral message in Kant's anthropological investigations, drawing new connections between Kant's work on human nature and his ethics. Finally, in Part Three (Extensions of Anthropology), Louden explores specific aspects of Kant's theory of human nature developed outside of his anthropology lectures, in his works on religion, geography, education ,and aesthetics, and shows how these writings substantially amplify his account of human beings. Kant's Human Being offers a detailed and multifaceted investigation of the question that Kant held to be the most important of all, and will be of interest not only to philosophers but also to all who are concerned with the study of human nature.

National Book Award Finalist. How did humanity originate and why does a species like ours exist on this planet? Do we have a special place, even a destiny in the universe? Where are we going, and perhaps, the most difficult question of all, "Why?" In The Meaning of Human Existence, his most philosophical work to date, Pulitzer Prize–winning biologist Edward O. Wilson grapples with these and other existential questions, examining what makes human beings supremely different from all other species. Searching for meaning in what Nietzsche once called "the rainbow colors" around the outer edges of knowledge and imagination, Wilson takes his readers on a journey, in the process bridging science and philosophy to create a twenty-first-century treatise on human existence—from our earliest inception to a provocative look at what the future of mankind portends. Continuing his groundbreaking examination of our "Anthropocene Epoch," which he began with The Social Conquest of Earth, described by the New York Times as "a sweeping account of the human rise to domination of the biosphere," here Wilson posits that we, as a species, now know enough about the universe and ourselves that we can begin to approach questions about our place in the cosmos and the meaning of intelligent life in a systematic, indeed, in a testable way. Once criticized for a purely mechanistic view of human life and an overreliance on genetic predetermination, Wilson presents in The Meaning of Human Existence his most expansive and advanced theories on the sovereignty of human life, recognizing that, even though the human and the spider evolved similarly, the poet's sonnet is wholly different from the spider's web. Whether attempting to explicate "The Riddle of the Human Species," "Free Will," or "Religion"; warning of "The Collapse of Biodiversity"; or even creating a plausible "Portrait of E.T.," Wilson does indeed believe that humanity holds a special position in the known universe. The human epoch that began in biological evolution and passed into pre-, then recorded, history is now more than ever before in our hands. Yet alarmed that we are about to abandon natural selection by redesigning biology and human nature as we wish them, Wilson soberly concludes that advances in science and technology bring us our greatest moral dilemma since God stayed the hand of Abraham.

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Philosophy - Theoretical (Realisation, Science, Logic, Language), course: Access to Humanities and Social Science, language: English, abstract: The aim of this essay is to philosophically discern the broad and universal question of "What is the meaning of life?" pertaining to humans and humanity. The conclusion will as accurately as possible represent the shared meaning of life amongst individuals as well as the basis of the meaning itself. It is key to understand that any conclusion found may not include every single individual but will include most individuals. It may also be found that any actual meaning of life is subconscious, where the individual is simply unaware of themselves embodying or actuating the meaning itself. This writing will also highlight the relevance as well as importance of the concept within individuals, society and humanity as well as the philosophical insights and inferences found due to this. I will be referring to sociological and philosophical theories throughout to compare, contrast and analyse perspectives which will aid in the honing of my purpose. Lastly, throughout the essay I will mention reservations of my own findings and I will address them to further clarify my points.

The Universe goes round and round, as does the Earth and Life on it! What is the reality behind the ever-changing activities within each of these? The eight essays included in The Reality of Human Life present an overall vision of the diversity of human life. Based upon author Bedrich Hettichs life experiences and observations, this collection offers a modern perception of the invisible existence of God, a Spirit revealed behind the reality of the power existing throughout the Universe right down to planet Earth in it with the diversity of human life on it. These essays address the questions of why and how we got here, what we are supposed to do while we are here, and what happens to us when we die. The topics of these essays relate human activities directly to God, serving as an extension of the essays in Hettichs first collection, The Reality of God in the Universe. Human life creates its own diversity, including the diversity of integration with other life forms that still exist on the Earth. These essays seek to build an understanding of how this diversity relates to the process by which we learn, collectively and individually, to work and live together in harmony referred to as the tuning of human life.

Lynne Rudder Baker presents and defends a unique account of the material world: the Constitution View. In contrast to leading metaphysical views that take everyday things to be either non-existent or reducible to micro-objects, the Constitution View construes familiar things as irreducible parts of reality. Although they are ultimately constituted by microphysical particles, everyday objects are neither identical to, nor reducible to, the aggregates of microphysical particles that constitute them. The result is genuine ontological diversity: people, bacteria, donkeys, mountains and microscopes are fundamentally different kinds of things - all constituted by, but not identical to, aggregates of particles. Baker supports her account with discussions of non-reductive causation, vagueness, mereology, artefacts, three-dimensionalism, ontological novelty, ontological levels and emergence. The upshot is a unified ontological theory of the entire material world that irreducibly contains people, as well as non-human living things and inanimate objects.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

'An extraordinarily diverse collection; pure Walker, fresh-eyed and sassy' NEW YORK TIMES Living by the Word is a memorable collection of essays, letters and journal extracts from Pulitzer Prize winner, Alice Walker. In her own immaculate prose, Alice Walker opens an intimate window to her world - whether it be her troubled relationship with her father, her upbringing amidst the poverty of rural Georgia, her daughter Rebecca, or simply her joy in choosing plants for her garden, planning the colours of her home, or relishing the taste of freshly picked vegetables. In other essays she explores themes such as the nature of dreams, justice, folklore and the role of ancestors. She details the story of Dessie Woods who was sent to jail for murdering her would-be rapist and highlights the role of racism and prejudice in the law's treatment of black women. Finally we travel with her on her journey to China, to Bali, and a visit to Nine Miles - the birthplace of the legendary Bob Marley.

In his magnum opus Being in Time (1927), Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) argued that individuals have assumed that their existence is "a given," when in actual fact they simply have the ability to be. Justifying Our Existence examines the ways in which human beings attempt to calm their existential concerns by magnifying and proving their existence through phenomena such as self-righteousness, careerism, nationalism, and religion. Using remarkably accessible and concise writing, Graeme Nicholson provides a close reading of Heidegger's methods to indicate how his work has a practical application for existential concerns. Justifying Our Existence shows how phenomenology can be used to foreground existence, while also providing startling insights into human behaviour, the motivation behind many of our social systems, as well as one of the twentieth century's most important philosophers.