The 'human condition'

[FBM]

'The human condition' is as vague and useless as talking about 'human nature' or the 'nature' of anything, for that matter. 'True nature' or 'true self', those phrases make me

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

I'm sure I'll regret this but,

I never liked the expression 'Human Rights'.

It's so open to non-sensical mis-use.


e.g. Is the west depriving some people in africa of their 'human rights' by not protecting them from religous abuse?

How far can you take such a concept?

edit: or speeling errors

My bold.
I've always had a problem with this too. - Specifically the "rights" part. To me 'rights' are just something that people with more power at any given time are prepared to let you do. I don't think rights are an innate part of being human. - Not so long ago in Germany citizens had the 'right' to persecute jews, while jews didn't even have the 'right' to life.

Fuck me! Am I doing philosophy?

[Xamonas Chegwé]

If (HUMAN == TRUE)
Then Do;
     LIFE = BITCH;
     YOU = DIE;
End If;

[Trolldor]

The Human Condition.
+15 to attack rolls
-8 to wisdom
-8 to intelligence

[A Monkey Shaved]

I just think my username sums it up:

Darwinian Man
(W.S. Gilbert)
A lady fair, of lineage high,
Was loved by an Ape, in the days gone by.
The maid was radiant as the sun,
The ape was a most unsightly one--
So it would not do-- His scheme fell through,
For the Maid, when his love took formal shape,
Expressed such terror, at his monstrous error,
That he stammered an apology and made his escape,
The picture of a disconcerted Ape.

With a view to rise in the social scale,
He shaved his bristles, and he docked his tail.
He grew mustachios, and he took his tub,
And he paid a guinea to a toilet club--
But it would not do, the scheme fell through--
For the maid was beauty's fairest queen,
With golden tresses, like a real princess's,
While the ape, despite his razor keen,
Was the apiest ape that ever was seen.

He bought white ties and he bought dress suits,
He crammed his feet into bright tight boots--
And to start in life on a brand-new plan,
He christened himself Darwinian Man.
But it would not do, the scheme fell through--
For the maiden fair, whom the monkey craved,
Was a radiant being, with a brain far-seeing--
While Darwinian Man, though well behaved,
At best is only a monkey shaved.

Well that is the human condition

[camoguard]

The Human Condition was a great trilogy. Basically, I think it's the sense that you're forced to keep growing or else crystallize in your thoughts. Growth is subjective but you ask new questions, you adopt new nuances or change religions or focus your efforts on different areas of your life. This leaves the constant feeling of running in circles. In the movies, this is shown by the idealistic start Kaji had and how he is forced into different experiences which challenge his philosophies and his value of life during the Japanese experience of World War II. By crystallization, I am referring to a state in which a person refuses to change their current opinion of life. Instead information which is discordant is simply discarded. Since we are imperfect, there is a conflict of viewpoints over whether someone should be unchanging and thus true to themselves (crystallized) or constantly grow and yet be inconsistent among their peers. That's another way to look at the human condition. It is a fuzzy description because we're generalizing life.

[buschmaster]

...

[tattuchu]

What does the phrase 'the human condition' mean to you?

Today is the first day of the rest of your strife.

[JimC]

As normally used in context, it seeks to generalise what is common to all humans, not bound by the era they lived, their race or creed, pauper or king. Whether through our common hominid acestry, or the inevitable pressures of living in groups, the sure knowledge of our mortality gives us common ground; we all experience the human condition.

Luckily, gin is a sovereign remedy for its nasty bits...

[Hermit]

'The human condition' is as vague and useless as talking about 'human nature' or the 'nature' of anything, for that matter. 'True nature' or 'true self', those phrases make me

I agree with you and colubridae.

For an easy to read, humorous - if understandably somewhat sardonic - elaboration of this view, read The Human Nature Industry: How Human Nature is Manufactured, Distributed, and Consumed in the United States and parts of Canada by Ward Cannel and June Macklin.

[Trolldor]

What does the phrase 'the human condition' mean to you?

Read Cosmos.
The human condition is a physical state.

[hiyymer]

What does the phrase 'the human condition' mean to you?

And the Lord God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

You asked.

The capacity for symbolic reasoning means that we have the "what if", while other animals live in the "what is". We have the knowledge that it can be different than it is, but at the same time we are locked out of the garden. We can build a better bomb, but we can't make a better us.

[amused]

What does the phrase 'the human condition' mean to you?

In economics it's described as unlimited desire in the face of limited resources.

We want more than we can ever get.

[hiyymer]

What does the phrase 'the human condition' mean to you?

In economics it's described as unlimited desire in the face of limited resources.

We want more than we can ever get.

Why is that the "human" condition? Wouldn't it be true of any species?

[Randydeluxe]

What a piece of work is a man:
How noble in reason.
How infinite in faculties.
In form and moving, how express and admirable.
In action how like an angel.
In apprehension how like a god!