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Humanity

Diagram of a representative of humanity, part of the sent in 1974. The element on the left represents the average size of a man: 1764 mm. The description on its right is the size of the human population at the time, 32 bits or 4292591583.

Humanity refers to both the set of individuals belonging to the species human ( ) but also the characteristics that define membership in this group.

Another use of this word refers to features of personality of an individual who, for example, amplify the qualities and values considered essential to humans, such as kindness , the generosity in civilizations. The concept of humanity is also closer to the concept of human nature that emphasizes the idea that humans share certain characteristics essential , a kind of limited and specific behaviors. What differentiates them from other beings, including animals.

The question is twofold. First, one must wonder about the " clean man "what are the peculiarities of the physiology and behavior that humans are not found elsewhere in the animal kingdom? And secondly, this concept raises the question of the unity of man: to what extent these features are they really shared by all members of the human species, including the problem of ethnocentrism that essentializing characteristics (eg skin color ) or behavior specific to a particular human group or tradition as cultural and, therefore, denies human status to individuals of another ethnicity.

These issues were first addressed from the perspectives of philosophy and religion. A famous illustration of this debate was the controversy of Valladolid (in 1550) who posed the question of the status of American Indians. Subsequently, and especially from the eighteenth century , these questions will be included in a perspective scientific approaches to the crossing zoology , of ethology , the anthropology of the genetics and paleoanthropology. Although based on scientific approaches, these approaches have been and continue to be criticized at times for what they are influenced or biased by the ideologies of contemporary societies. Nowadays, the different conceptions of humanity have implications for moral , ethical , scientific , legal and environmental that are expressed, for example, in debates on the legal status of the embryo or human status of great apes.

Summary

/ / Some definitions

Humanity is a term that has several meanings.

  1. In the first sense it means all human beings: it has a dimension primarily biological and descriptive in connection with the evolution of species. It is a synonym of Homo sapiens.
  2. In a second sense, evaluative, it emphasizes the constitutive unity of the human group and takes a moral claim to normative visions to establish a distinction between its members. The source of this constituent unit is problematic: the genetic, shared an ideological rationale, a report on the existence, or mutual recognition: in this sense, humanity has an expressive power that the debate over the conceptual basis. This definition is one that gives meaning to the crime against humanity and is echoed in questions of discrimination.
  3. Finally, in a third sense, also evaluative, humanity itself means a behavioral prescription for certain limits of an existing model but for others, represents an idea toward which our species. This definition expresses its meaning when the acts performed by the genera are identified as lacking in humanity, or classified as "inhumane". It is unique in that sense that judgments are also popular sense that certain animals have more humanity than some humans.

The man's own

Historical aspects

Humans and animals

Rembrandt , The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp or diversity of emotions of Man

"Laughter is the essence of man," wrote Rabelais , which also says that man is a social animal and reasonable.

So since antiquity, humans have questioned the man's own, wondering how they differed essentially from other animals.

For religions monotheistic , in which man, the apex of creation , was made in the image of God , this distinction vis--vis animals is clear and is characterized by the soul. In the Chinese world , it is the intermediate between Heaven and Earth. In this vision, humans are considered the species 'dominance' on the Earth and the Environment is made available to meet its needs.

This new paradigm by tracing a continuity Phylogenetic from animals to humans has undermined these beliefs millennia on the uniqueness of man, but anthropocentrism in force then took another ideological form: from the top of the creation, human beings became the peak of evolution. This was particularly reflected in the terminology used in classifications cladistic : The term primate etymologically means "first" and our taxon formerly known as of Archon meant "heads".

The "essence of Man" in contemporary science

From a standpoint biological , the human species is continuous evolving with other species including the great apes. Thus, for the philosopher Jean-Marie Schaeffer , "The Man 'is not' nature 'or' essence '. It is the crystallization genealogical provisional and unstable form of a life-changing (...) " , . But long before the discovery of other primates and classification of Homo sapiens in this order , philosophers and scientists have studied the status of our species in comparison with other animals and what was the " 's own man. Among the aspects that have been put forward by philosophers and scientists, sometimes incorrectly, as characteristic of human specificity, we can identify:

Specific features of the biology human

The majority of these biological characteristics, or all features may be found in some form in other animal species. For example, some birds are able to use simple tools made from twigs to reach a nut and chimpanzees bonobos are known to practice non-reproductive sexuality gay - and heterosexual that promotes social cohesion. These characteristics do not constitute absolute criteria for distinction. The fact remains that in humans, it is convenient to compare some of these features have developed quite specific.

Psychology , ethology and anthropology

Culture

Specificities in human culture

In science, two major areas are trying to answer this question: the natural sciences and social sciences. The natural sciences, including biology , make use of scientific methods and theories of evolution of species, while the social sciences are moving towards the paradigm of human cultural evolution, proposed by the history and paleoanthropology.

The most striking and obvious distinguishing us from the rest of the animal kingdom is without a doubt the place that the representations culture in the social organization of the life of our species in general and have been for thousands of years, as evidenced by the events of prehistoric art.

However, the awareness of human knowledge and human do not find their counterparts in the rest of the animal kingdom. The role of culture in the development of our species is not as important in our lives that can have the culture in the rest of animal social groups. For example:

Of course, the culture and societies are found in several animal species, but there are only humans who founded social institutions such as the school , the banks , or marriage , on the basis of its beliefs and knowledge. She is also the only question repeatedly these social institutions to redefine and implement reforms or revolutions to change the systems in which the majority of the species is confined. For what it is possible to know, our species is alone in giving directions to also polysemic things around. Indeed, few people, especially in crossing cultures and times, share the same sense of social reality. For example, the conceptualization of marriage has changed dramatically during development of human society, being sometimes absent, sometimes a question military , sometimes a question moral , sometimes a matter of reproduction and sometimes a matter of individual freedom or dependency.

The role of culture in our social species

The triumph of the Republic by Aime-Jules Dalou , Place de la Nation , Paris

The fact that humans can not survive alone and in need of others is a "social animal". The communities of humans are generally woven a complex web of social relations, rituals , of customs , of beliefs , of customs , of traditions , of social norms and laws. This fact was noticed by early thinkers in the East and West: Aristotle defined the human as a "social animal" Confucius said that nobody can live with wild beasts and birds, each must participate in society. Most major human creations are the product of a complex genealogy of influences and the combined efforts of a group or people. From pyramids to haiku , the didgeridoo to space shuttles , is the social aspect of humans that can link the creativity and inventiveness that marks our culture.

The role of the ideological culture in humans far exceeds that which it plays in other species. Although one can not deny this culture in other social species, two definitions of the concept of culture now live together in science. In its weak definition , culture includes all cultural behavior of the animal kingdom:

"All signs and lines up distinctions in the behavior of two communities belonging to the same species. To culture, these signs and lines must be shared by group members, be transmitted socially and individually, show variations in time and space such that all these variations ultimately belong to the same set . "

However, in its high definition, admits that the modern culture of human culture:

"The set of principles, representations and values shared by members of the same company (or several companies) and organize their actions on themselves, that is to say, to organize their reports social society. Denotes values by norms, positive or negative, in a society that attach to ways of acting, living, or thinking; one being banned, other prescribed. "

Adaptability of Man

If we consider its distribution, the diversity of climates and habitats that people, human beings, thanks to its dynamism and its ability to use the material adapts to the ecosystem through their transformation. This is one of the most versatile living species to modify its environment and changes generated tame. Unlike many other species in which coping skills are due to the morphology , the degree of adaptability is due firstly to its flexibility behavioral particularly due to his brain developed.

Most of the existing species (the ant , the monkey through the reptiles or bacteria ) have a capacity to adapt in relation to their biomes. Humans, like pets , for example, has no morphological attributes it to defend themselves against predators ( horns , fangs , claws ...) or to survive in harsh climatic conditions (no fur ). This has not prevented humans occupy most terrestrial one hand knowing use of resources, ignoring the consequences of his actions, but also by transforming the biome.

Although most species are transforming their environment (by building nests , for example) and sometimes quite impressive as dams built by beavers , humans can produce much more radical transformations in an assessment of ecological changes habitat. The loss of global biodiversity from human activities is a current example. Thanks to their abilities cognitive and through the knowledge technology acquired in their social network , humans have a capacity and exercise destruction of habitat. This orientation of the cultural evolution of the species can adapt and destroy a particularly fast compared to other animal species for which adaptive capacity is mainly determined by the laws of biological evolution.

Biological evolution of a species, which is no adaptation or cultural evolution, is the result of mutation breeding. Species with a common reproductive cycle, eg viruses, evolve quickly, if we compare the gestation time with humans. The ability to respond to the human species to environmental change is sometimes rapid. This is not an ability to adapt physiologically or organic which is biased but rather a behavioral adaptation or technical outcome of habits developed culturally invented or imitated.

Technological and Cultural led the expansion of human population, changing the Earth's environment and civilization of human society over the past hundreds of thousands of years. Some researchers argue that genetic evolution preceded the evolution of human culture. Therefore, the more cognitive culture that human nature has determined the changes in the biophysical and social human species, which resulted in a loss of habitat and biodiversity. In this regard, the paleoanthropologist Yves Coppens maintains that "The technical development and cultural than biological development."

The scientists developing the concept of ecological footprint consider the contemporary lifestyle that prevails in North America , in Europe and in modern cultures makes humans similar to predators resources, parasites in the biosphere, the world animals and plants. It would be the cause of the sixth great crisis of mass extinction that knowing the history of the Earth Place of articulate speech

Although several species have means of communication , nothing comparable to human and elaborations to the place that articulate language has been observed so far. The grammars complex or abstract concepts that each human uses every day does not occur at the state natural among other species. He is currently in advanced zoology that whales have language accents and languages according to their cultural affiliation. According to the linguist Noam Chomsky , a hallmark of humans is the instinct of language , an innate mechanism of the brain capable of acquiring a language by observing those around us.

Some anthropologists believe Learning and socialization: the wild children

If genetics is not sufficient and that the role of language and culture are essential aspects of human nature, humanity falls within the scope of debates on the nature and nurture and " Nature and Culture ". These issues were raised including nineteenth century with studies on learning and socialization of feral children , and the question: What cultural contributions requires a little human-to become a human?

Approach of cultural evolution in paleoanthropology

This perspective, first developed by Yves Coppens and Pascal Picq is based on the study of early hominids. She argues that humanity emerged after the advent of Homo sapiens.

For paleoanthropologists and much of researchers in social sciences , biological evolution preceded the cultural evolution, but it has surpassed the effects of biological evolution, that is to say, according this paradigm, culture is more likely to explain the social changes and differences between people as genetics. Paleoanthropologists are consistent with the biological approach, to a certain point, they design them so that culture is indeed an anthropological given (in the order of nature). However they add a particular shade, the place of culture in the life of our species:

"The origins of our species Homo sapiens are certainly African and date back over 200,000 years. But a considerable revolution arrives, driven by some populations of Homo sapiens: The symbolic revolution, with art that appears in all its forms - music, engraving, painting, sculpture, not to mention the ornaments and furniture funeral. "

To understand how Homo sapiens has not always humans, paleoanthropologist had to try to understand this particular phenomenon. They have come to the tentative conclusion but now that humanity is in fact our invention:

"This is a construction of our psyche which necessarily relies on a cognitive substrate whose origins date back beyond the last common ancestor we share with chimpanzees. During their evolution, chimpanzees do not become men, for men, it is not certain that they have become human. "

In this sense, these researchers argue that humans are far from being a concept that is clear and should be sent to distinguish this case from the ideal to capture the essence of our species. From this angle of analysis becomes a human creation in the = "Http://fr.orgEsprit" alt = "Spirit"> spirit of our species. The paleontologist Pascal Picq raises the question:

"The essence of the human is not it fair to ask: "What is human?" And is this sense of our species Homo sapiens ? In this case, other men, known prehistoric humans were they? Summary of the essence of Man

Ultimately, the question "What is peculiar to humans? "Is probably the first of biology and philosophy. It also posed a question in science, as is the case in paleoanthropology and sociobiology.

From the perspective of biology, this question may seem of little relevance to researchers and educators in the humanities. If we take the approach angle of sociobiology seems more appropriate to include the ecological role of humankind in the culture. Paleoanthropology provides an interesting answer to the question, while focusing on the biology of Homo sapiens. A quote from Pascal Picq summarizes the scientific position:

"The human being is a human invention, based on our shared historical legacy, but is not obvious to all. Homo sapiens is not actually human. "

For philosophy and religion abstract debates are still continuing around the question of the essence of "human nature".

Approach to the cultural evolution: Social learning and imitation

Kevin Laland, evolutionary biologist at the University of St. Andrews (UK) interested in the evolution of human culture, with the help of his colleagues examined the relative importance of social learning and the acquisition of behaviors from observing others versus individual innovation.

The conclusion drawn from his experience is that the winning strategy is imitation rather than innovation. Thus, an overall involvement of this result on the cultural evolution of mankind is that our evolutionary success could lie in the ability to create social networks and know who, what and when to copy. ,

The oneness of humanity

In philosophy

Antiquity

The idea of a unity of humanity appeared in ancient times.

In China , Confucius (551-479 BC.) contemporary Presocratics , proposed in the decadent atmosphere of the central government of that time, an ethical ideal of human virtue which is central, as well as a political ideal (the Analects).

The ren or jen is the virtue of humanity, dignity of man, sense of humanity and wisdom. Lane Dao (or Tao) is next to the ren, the former path.

The ideal policy is found several centuries later in the West, through the consciousness of a unity of humanity. For example, in the stoicism : "men must not separate into cities and nations , each with their laws specific, because all men are citizens "( Plutarch ). "My country is the world" ( Seneca ).

Middle Ages

Note the medieval integrating concepts of metaphysics in the West ( Thomas Aquinas ), from the exchange that took place with the Islamic civilization. This opportunity resulted from a similarity of approach between the major religions on the fundamental concepts of ancient philosophy , the latter being represented mainly by Aristotle on matters metaphysical : substance , being , essence , existence.

Enlightenment

This notion of collective destiny has been developed in the eighteenth century by the philosophers , through the notions of natural law.

nineteenth century

The idea of collective fate is challenged in the nineteenth century by Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Auguste Comte said the idea of humanity through what he called the Great Being and the religion of humanity (see religious positivism ), this ideology actually proposed a religion without God . It was quickly distorted by some of his successors. For example, Charles Maurras was inspired by the subjective synthesis of Auguste Comte ( 1854 ), and reduced the Great Being the nation. He introduced modern forms of nationalism in France, and inspired many political movements , sometimes extremist.

XX century

Henri de Lubac criticized the humanistic ideas of the nineteenth century .

The technical progress will cause unpredictable changes in the definition of the " human being ", including action on the genetic and cyborgs. For example, the writer of science fiction, Isaac Asimov stated the three laws of robotics to guide the powers delegated to the robot, and has interviewed several of his novels about what would a robot a member of the humanity.

Some modern philosophies have denied the existence of human nature. This is the case, for example, Marxism for which nature is reduced to "the totality of social relations" ( Karl Marx ). In a similar vein, to the existentialism French, "existence precedes essence" ( Sartre ), so that, strictly speaking, human nature does not exist. Several other contemporary philosophers continue to attempt to define human nature.

The concept of humanity has given the concept of solidarity extended to the entire species, often summarized by the word " humanitarian ".

Humanity is therefore all human beings , whatever their differences, whether cultural , ethnic , religious , philosophical , sexual , geographical or otherwise.

In Christianity

The unity of humanity has two forms:

Unit of human nature

In each individual, body, mind , and soul are one nature , human nature.

St. Paul says in effect:

"May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and that everything that is in you, the spirit , soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! "

The Catholic Church expressed as follows:

"The unity of soul and body is so profound that one must consider the soul as the body shape that is to say, thanks to the spiritual soul that the body corporate material is a living human body, the mind and matter, in man are not two natures united, but their union forms a single nature. "
Unity of Humanity

On the other hand, mankind has also a unit of mind , through the Holy Spirit. The Eucharistic Prayer IV mentions the expression " Creating a whole ":

"To us who are your children, grants, Good Father, the inheritance of eternal life to the Virgin Mary, the Blessed Mother of God, with apostles and saints of all, in your kingdom, where we can with all creation, finally freed from sin and death, glorify you through Christ our Lord, through whom you give the world all grace and all good. "

Stakes moral and legal

The definition of human nature has moral issues, legal and sustainability: while some people are not recognized as such, it is not necessary to treat them with the respect due a person. The Controversy of Valladolid opposed for example in 1550 the Dominican Bartolom de Las Casas and the philosopher Sepulveda on the status of American Indians.

The man and his environment

. In many philosophical and religious traditions, there is a formulation of domination of man over other living beings . This form of domination seems to have been accentuated and retrieved by human cultures around the seventeenth century , when, for example, Descartes says, in part VI of the discourse on method :

" Vision of interdependence

Devising ways of thinking man as related to its environment have existed for millennia, the idea that humans are rather perceived as being what it is because others are what they are, and there exists at the same time that the vision of superiority but not in the same cultures.

This vision of interdependence is expressed clearly still present in many peoples Aborigines or Native Americans. For example, among the Inuit terminology to describe our species literally means "people". This concept differs from the plural of "Man" is rather singular. It's the same philosophy of Ubuntu that can design its own existence only in relation to the other and that of the Dreamtime. These people will be conceived as mere players among many in the world works. Every other element, whether vegetable, mineral or animal, is important and right to exist and respect. This respect can sometimes be illustrated by the belief in the incarnation of a spirit or god embodying these different elements.

The type of vision of interdependence between human beings and their environment has taken its importance in individualistic societies since the 1980s with the rise of speech, ideas environmentalists and knowledge. Several other factors also contributed to the emergence of this type of discourse that may also notice in current ideas of sharing knowledge for the good of all.

This concept of interdependence also exists in science, in philosophical and religious traditions, including Judeo-Christian tradition which sees the creation as a whole.

See also

External link

References

  1. in "Notice to Readers" Gargantua (1534)
  2. The Parts of Animals, III, X
  3. Jean-Marie Schaeffer , The End of human exception, Paris, Gallimard, 2007. Quoted in To A Natural History of Man , Proceedings of reading on the life of ideas
  4. See also George Chapouthier , "Kant and the chimp-test on humans, morality and art, Paris, Belin, 2009, 144 p. ( ISBN 978-2-7011-4698-0 )
  5. (en) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6948446.stm
  6. Godelier, M. (1998): "What crops for which primates, high definition or low definition of culture? ', In A. Ducros Ducros J. & F. Joulian, Is culture natural? History, epistemology and recent applications of the concept of culture, Paris, Wandering, p. 217.
  7. Godelier, M. (1998): "What crops for which primates, high definition or low definition of culture? ', In A. Ducros Ducros J. & F. Joulian, Is culture natural? History, epistemology and recent applications of the concept of culture, Paris, Wandering, p. 218.
  8. a and b P PICQ Humans at the dawn of humanity in p59 What is human?
  9. P PICQ Humans at the dawn of humanity in p33 What is human?
  10. Picq P., "The human at the dawn of mankind" p64, in What is human?
  11. Cultural Evolution: Conquering by Copying , Science (magazine)
  12. Cultural evolution: to win by copying, French Translation
  13. Positivism is a cult of the dead, Raquel Capurro
  14. The drama of atheistic humanism, 1942
  15. St. Paul, First Epistle to the Thessalonians , chapter 5, verse 23
  16. John Paul II , Catechism of the Catholic Church , number 365, page 84.
  17. See in this regard the Book of Genesis , Chapter 1

Bibliography

  • Francois Flahault (2007), Adam and Eve. The human condition, Thousand and One Nights, 289 p. ( ISBN 978-2-755-50011-0 )
  • Michel Serres , P. Picq, Jean-Didier Vincent (2003), What the People ", Le Pommier and the City College of Science, ( ISBN 2746501309 )
  • Chayeux J.-P. (2003), Genes and cultures - Annual Symposium, Odile Jacob, 304 p. ( ISBN 2-7381-1310-9 )
  • Yves Coppens and P. Picq (ed.) (2001), The Origins of Mankind, 2 vols., Fayard, 700 p. ( ISBN 2213603707 )
  • Godelier, M. (1998), "What crops for which primates, high definition or low definition of culture? ", In A. Ducros Ducros J. & F. Joulian, Is culture natural? History, epistemology and recent applications of the concept of culture, Paris, Wandering, pp. 217-222
  • Chapouthier Georges (2009), Kant and the chimp-test on humans, morality and art, Belin, 144 p. ( ISBN 978-2-7011-4698-0 )
  • The idea of humanity, Robert Legros. LGF (March 22, 2006). The paperback library tests ISBN 2253082848

Quotes on the Nature of Man


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