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Human condition

Human condition: Encyclopedia - Human condition

The human condition encompasses the totality of the experience of being human and living human lives. As mortal entities, there are a series of biologically determined events which are common to most human lives, and some which are inevitable for all. The ongoing way in which humans react to or cope with these events is the human condition. However, understanding the precise nature and scope of what is meant by ...

Including:

Human condition - Events

Human condition - Self-awareness

Human condition - Study

Human condition - Change

Human condition - Negative usage of the term

Human condition, Human condition - Change, Human condition - Events, Human condition - Negative usage of the term, Human condition - Self-awareness, Human condition - Study, The Denial of Death, Erik H. Erikson, Existentialism, Hannah Arendt, Man's search for meaning, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, ontology, Rite of passage, Seven ages of man, Seven deadly sins, Human nature

Human condition: Encyclopedia - Human condition

Human condition

The human condition encompasses the totality of the experience of being human and living human lives. As mortal entities, there are a series of biologically determined events which are common to most human lives, and some which are inevitable for all. The ongoing way in which humans react to or cope with these events is the human condition. However, understanding the precise nature and scope of what is meant by the human condition is itself a philosophical problem.

The term is also used in a metaphysical sense, to describe the joy, terror and other feelings or emotions associated with being and existence. Human beings, (and other primates) are aware of the passage of time, can remember the past and imagine the future, and are aware of their own mortality. Only human beings ask themselves: What is the meaning of life? Why was I born? Why am I here? Where will I go when I die? The human struggle to find answers to these questions — and the very fact that we can conceive them and ask them — is what defines the human condition in this sense of the term.

(As we can not communicate with other creatures (we do not understand their "language"), we have no clear understanding as to whether they also have the same "conditions" as us.)

Although the term itself may have gained popular currency with The Human Condition, a film trilogy directed by Masaki Kobayashi which examined these and related concepts, the quest to understand the human condition dates back to the first attempts by humans to understand themselves and their place in the universe.

Human condition - Events

These events include:

prenatal
birth
infancy
early childhood or prepubescence
middle childhood
late childhood or preadolescence
adolescence
young adulthood
adulthood
middle age
old age
love
sex
reproduction
aging
death

The Denial of Death, Erik H. Erikson, Existentialism, Hannah Arendt, Man's search for meaning, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, ontology, Rite of passage, Seven ages of man, Seven deadly sins, Human nature

Human condition - Self-awareness

Humans can have some degree of sentient self-awareness of these events. Different cultures treat these events in different ways. Many religions and philosophies attempt to give meaning to the human condition. The human condition is the central subject of much literature, drama and art.

Human condition - Study

The human condition is the subject of fields of study like sociology, anthropology, and demographics. In some of the poorest parts of the world, the human condition has changed little over the centuries.

In most developed countries, improvements in medicine, education, and public health have brought about marked changes in the human condition over the last few hundred years, with increases in life expectancy and demography (see demographic transition). Probably one of the largest changes has been the availability of contraception, which has changed the lives of women and attitudes to sexuality. Even then, these changes only alter the details of the human condition.

Human condition - Change

Some movements like transhumanism aim to radically change the human condition. Other thinkers, like Enrico Fermi, deny that human nature has changed radically over time.

Human condition - Negative usage of the term

This term is sometimes used with a pessimistic or derogatory air by a certain kind of human, to imply that the human condition is in general a wretched one or that it cannot be improved. This can be associated with the ubiquitous phrase "only human," as far as pertains to its implications of inferiority to an unspecified comparative source. This can also be compared to the phrase "mere mortals" in a more declamatory or melodramatic mode of speech. The far-reaching implications of that philosophical inclination, however, are beyond the scope of this article.