An ancient sage once said that a man does not have a more interesting subject than the nature of the human being. This issue is one of the most important and interesting in the entire world philosophy. The man was described by Protagoras as the measure of everything – it was a basic philosophical and methodological principle of all humanitarian sciences of the Old World. Denis Diderot considered a man as the supreme worth, the only founder of all accomplishments in culture, a place from which everything has started and where must come back.
Shakespeare speaks through Hamlet:
“What a piece of work is a man? How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world!” (Shakespeare W.).
No matter how abstract, natural-scientific or practical issues the human mind has been busy with, every thinking together with its obvious objectives is always placed with an underlying idea about its relationship with the human being; with his internal entity or his requirements, in achieving the liberty and human benefit is the meaning of social, political, scientific, and technological progress; the art seeks to learn the secrets of the man, each and every human act is inspired by him. If you take away from the diversity of human activities its focus on the person’s rod, then the goal of any actions, and their leading stimuli will disappear.
That is especially right in the disciplines, definitely devoted to the man. Biology, medicine, psychology, sociology, etc., study particular manifestations of the man. Philosophy, however, has always aspired to grasp his continuity, understanding that a simple sum of the particular knowing of the human sciences will not bring the needed conclusion, and due to this always tried to create its personal means of human cognition and use them to find its position in the world. “Know thyself” – with these words of great Socrates we can repeat the philosophical program.
But still, what is a human being? At first sight this question seems ridiculously easy: everyone knows what a man is! However, what is closest to us, something with which we seem to be most familiar, is actually the most complex object of knowledge. In my opinion, it is right to say that, although almost everything in human nature is understood (both scientifically and philosophically), still a lot remains mysterious and outstanding in the very essence of man.
This is quite understandable: a man is a world in the world! In addition, in the master universe there are not more secrets than in him. Moreover, the human being is the biggest riddle of the world. And speaking about the inexhaustibility of knowledge of the entire world, we have to admit than a man is especially inexhaustible – the pick of creativity of nature. The mystery of that fact becomes even bigger when penetrating it more. But the profound of this issue not only does not deter from it but, conversely, attracts with greater power more and more.
The humanity has always been trying to create a coherent image of man in philosophy. But what is a deal of the knowledge in philosophy about a human being? The approach to the human being includes identification of his essence, determination specific historical forms of his activity, and the opening of different historically existing forms of its being. Philosophy reveals man's position in the universe and his attitude to everything, examines the issue of what a person can be, unfolding his possibilities, what is the relationship between social and biological in him, what is a human being as an personality, what is the nature of different types of personality, etc.
It is not a secret that this problem was highlighted unequally in various historical epochs: priorities and aspects of its interpretation varied. During certain periods, philosophical thought dissolved the man in nature (space) or in the community, it treated him like self-sufficient creature, making contrast with the natural existence. However, taking fully into account that the rates of "human issues" in various systems of philosophy has been not the same, it is with it main areas of philosophical thought throughout its history has always been associated.
The specifics of the philosophical range of problems associated with the man formed not immediate. History of philosophy is a complicated and long process of consistent methods and targeted settings. The understanding of human knowledge required, first of all, the formation of a specific manner of learning where the person appears both an object and a subject of that act.
In the philosophy of the ancient times, it was understood first of all as a microcosm, in its man’s forms subordinated the highest top – destiny.
A man was interpreted as a human being, in whom were initially linked two elements: body and soul, as well as the man and God – in the system of the Christian worldview. Augustine, for example, imagined the soul as not a part of the body but matched it exactly with the man; Thomas Aquinas understood the person like a unity of soul and body, as intermediate place among angels and animals. Human flesh is the main ring of passions and desires. The specifics of the people’s attitudes to the world is caused by this circumstance: there is clear desire not only to understand their own nature, but also to be closer to the God, and thus, get the consolation in sorrow and saving in the Day of Judgment. The idea of the limitations of the existence of humanity is alien to this view.
The philosophy of modern times has seen in a man (following the Christianity), primarily his spiritual being. From that period we can still draw the best works – the diamond placers of the finest observations of the internal life of the person’s spirit, the understanding and producing of the processes of the thinking, the secret springs of human thoughts and actions. Natural science could create unrivaled examples of naturalistic studies of human nature. However, an even bigger achievement of that time was the recognition of the self-rule of the human mind in understanding of its own nature.
The philosophy of the 19th – early 20th century enlarged spiritual principle of the human being, sometimes reducing its nature to the rational spirit, and in others – to the irrational. Despite the perceiving of the true nature of human being could already be viewed in a variety of ideas, which are in different ways formulated by various philosophers, but there was no coherent doctrine of man. This process was similar to the volcano’s state, ready to erupt, but still very slow, expecting for the last, decisive impetus of the internal energy. Over time, the center of philosophical knowledge turns to a person, from whom the threads are going, connecting it through a society with all the entire world.
The manifestations of man’s essence are extremely different – among them are the mind, and character, and emotions, and work, and communication. But which one is differential? The human being can think, love, hate, rejoice, and suffers, constantly strive for anything, achieve the desired, and after getting dissatisfied, starts rushing to the new goals and ideals.
Plato in his dialogs said that the man is a "two-legged animal without feathers." The man really has two legs without feathers. However here – the most important thing is overlooked – the nature of man. According to B. Pascal, “a man does not lose his humanity, by losing his legs, just as a capon does not become a man upon losing his feathers” (Shea). Let us think about what is the most distinctive feature of a human being. This feature is, primarily, work. Work (labor) is not only distinguished, but also an important feature of the human. In the working process, the man changes the conditions of his existence all the time, transforming them according to their constantly evolving requirements, composes a universe of material and spiritual culture, which is created by man in the same extent that the person is formed by culture.
If it would be possible for a second to imagine that there was no culture, literature and all kinds of art, as well as religion, philosophy, something shrunken to poverty is brought before us. And this shrinking of the people’s knowledge would be so tragic that together with it a socially developed person also evaporate. Only some kind of its monstrous similarity would remain. Work cannot be in a single manifestation, and from the early beginning it acted as a collective and social. Everyone must refill his/her contribution to the material and cultural wealth of society.
Of course, speaking about the role of work in the modern sense of this concept, we must bear in mind that in parallel with work a person evolved cognitive abilities and their attributes – language, thinking. Providing mutual influence, they improved labor skills, develop thinking and mutually contributed to the cultural formation of the person, the formation of the first human communities. The decisive role in this process belongs to the work, through which eventually forms the need for articulate speech, that is, for the language and the first beginnings of human thought.
Since the value of work plays a dominant role in the development of a man, it makes sense to dwell on this in more detail. First of all, let us think about what components are included in the concept of labor. These are – the subject of work, the object of work, means of work, the result or product of work. Together, these components make up work. The subject of work is a man. The man does not only interact with nature and modify it but also implements his conscious goal set by himself. To achieve this goal, he strains his mental and physical effort, comes in contact with others like him. All that contributes to the development of his mental abilities socializes his relationships with other people.
People participate in the work activities primarily due to the need to maintain their lives, self-renewal of bodily needs. There are various biological and spiritual needs of a person and to satisfy them, there is a need to diversify the work, and if we add to this the diversity of natural conditions, then in the aggregate it leads to a variety of different types of labor. The complication, intellectualization of work lead to the development of human thought, the strengthening of relations between people.
When analyzing the labor, we must remember that the work itself is nothing but a natural process, as it aims to provide the natural conditions of human existence. There is nothing social in this process yet. Although the fundamental differences between man and animal are already evident. No matter how far a man progressed in the labor activity, it will always be predetermined by the natural need and desire, and in this sense, labor is a natural human need. According to Karl Marx, as the primitive man had to fight with nature to meet his needs, to maintain and reproduce life, so must do a civilized man. With the development of man expands the realm of natural necessity, because the needs are expanding.
Work of the person has a natural character, and a man appears in it as a creature of nature. Otherwise than the man of nature, at least in the early stages of his activities, he cannot act. It is especially important to emphasize that human labor, contributing historically to the socialization of people, occurs as a natural process, because by acting with their work on the external world and changing it, people at the same time change their own nature and develop the latent power in it.
So, the fundamental importance of labor activity lies in the fact that, thanks to it the biological and spiritual needs of a man are satisfied, increasingly large-scale associations of people occur. Through the work of a person can express himself, demonstrate his physical and mental abilities.
In addition, a huge role in the formation of a man and the human personality belongs to the language. As it is known, the language is a system of signs by which people communicate with each other, express their thoughts. By means of language the human mind develops. There is a strong reason to believe that the language appeared and developed simultaneously with the emergence of the society, thanks to the joint labor activity of primitive people. The emergence of articulate speech has played a huge role in formation and development of humans, shaping interpersonal relations and establishing the first human communities.
The value of language is determined primarily by the fact that without it, the work of people is almost impossible. Of course, in today's society there are people with biological defects – "without language and without a voice," that are engaged in the labor activities. But they also use, however, the specific language – the language of gestures and facial expressions, let alone the receiving of written information.
Indeed, it is difficult for modern man to imagine the communication between people without speech. Because thanks to the communication between each other, people have the opportunity to establish contacts, negotiate on various issues of joint activities, share experiences, and so on. Through language one generation passes the information, knowledge, customs, and traditions to the next one. It is difficult to imagine a link between the different generations living in the same society without it. Must be said, finally, that by means of language states establish contacts with each other.
The role of language is great in shaping the human psyche and the development of human thinking. Very clearly this can be seen in the development of the child. With the mastering the language the behavior of a baby becomes more meaningful, it becomes easier for parents to talk to the child and to educate him.
In my opinion, enough has been mentioned to argue that together with work, the language has a decisive influence on the formation and development of the human psyche and thinking.
All of the above-mentioned properties of the person could not appear, exist and develop in the future outside the human community, without reproduction of human beings themselves. An important step in this direction was the establishment of the monogamous family and the first human communities in the form of the genus. This makes it possible not only to create certain conditions for the preservation and development of man, as a biological species but also to deal with his "education", that is to teach him to socialize in compliance with the customs and practices of the cohabitation.
Works Cited
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“Johann Gottlieb Fichte”. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. First published on Aug 30,
2001. Web. 19 July 2015. Retrieved from: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/johann-fichte/
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. Web. 19 July 2015. Retrieved from: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/full.html
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