Human condition is the ongoing balance between ambivalence, good and evil inside people and their environments. This balance and struggle between the three areas affects personal, emotional, spiritual and mental growth. Humans are somehow a balance between aggression, selfishness and lust mixed with compassion, love, trust and hope. Some of these characteristics include faith, birth, growth, peace, friendship, anger, corruption, hate, greed, pain, conflict, love and fear. This equilibrium allows for human experiences like pain and conflict to slip into both good and bad categories. No one is inherently good nor is anyone inherently evil. The way that people respond to their environments effects their human condition and leads them to view …show more content…
Lust, which is defined as an intense desire or craving after something that is not yours, is often defined in various pieces of literature as being one of the worst sins. People often desire what they can’t have, whether it’s a relationship, job, house or even a car. When someone lusts after something, they often lose track of all the things they should be thankful for. One example of this is illustrated in Thirst by Buddha. Throughout the sacred text he describes the worst aspects of human condition and how they negatively impact people’s lives. In Thirst, Buddha describes lust is that “a creature’s pleasures are extravagant and luxurious; sunk in lust and looking for pleasure.” At this point, Buddha describes lust as being something people want that seems extravagant and luxurious. In Addition, Buddha also describes lust as a temptation. “He who having got rid of the forest (of lust)...runs to the forest.”. These temptations are shown through vast forests, and the temptation of wanting to go back to the “forest of lust”. This illustrates that the person will never actually recieve what they’re searching for. Therefore, the human condition illustrates some of the worst aspects of …show more content…
This can be seen through times of growth, courage, faith, and friendship. Growth, which can be characterized by maturing, can be seen through various pieces of literature. Victor Frankl, a survivor of the Holocaust, wrote about growth in his book, A Man’s Search For Meaning. In the last chapter of his book, “The Case for a Tragic Optimism”, Frankl wrote about an individual, Jerry Long, who was involved in an accident that left him paralyzed. However, Long explained “I believe that the handicap will only enhance my ability to help others. I know that without suffering, the growth that I have achieved would have been impossible”. Frankl used Long as an example to show that through faith, courage and growth, one can be optimistic. In Addition, Cornel West, a major philosopher, wrote about the positive human condition of courage. He did this by stating, “It takes more courage to examine the dark corners of your own soul, than it does for a soldier to fight on the battlefield.” Which in the aspect of emotionality of the human condition, one must have the ability to express themselves in a healthy mean. Furthermore, this is seen through West’s statement because he believes that it takes courage for us to evaluate our own thoughts and mental processes. Therefore, through courage, growth, faith, and friendship the human condition illustrates the beautifully good aspects of
human condition, such as the need to possess, fear of the unknowing and stagnation. However,
In conclusion, it is the innate nature of mankind to choose survival above all needs which brings out the hidden savage in all of us kept only in check by the artificial restraints placed upon mankind by society. The descent into savagery, man's inherent desire to survive over anything else and the need for civilization and order shows how society unnaturally holds everyone together. The aspiration to endure is an intrinsic response that may lay dormant until the chains of society and civilization are removed; when that day arrives, their dormant instincts will arise and bring about a regression back to that of a savage.
Instead human nature is shown to exhibit both good and bad with dynamic results. Human nature encourages us to feel and experience a range of emotions. Happiness, sadness, love and hate are all natural feeling that helps to shape our personality. To help the elderly, to feed the poor, to shelter the homeless, to nurture a baby are all elements of human nature and incorporated into the way humans interact within society. The basic human emotions that drive people are love and hate, within these two come other emotions, sympathy, forgivness, revenge and jealousy.
across all of our written history have discovered the importance of knowing human nature. Human nature is responsible for our definitions of abstract concepts that are surprisingly universal across the western world like justice, equity, and law. Human nature must also be carefully studied in an effort to understand, obtain, or maintain power within society. Finally, human nature must also be carefully understood so as to protect it from being manipulated and to understand its place in society.
“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” (Eleanor Roosevelt). This is just one of the infinite examples of how human nature has been explored by so many different people. Each and every human is born with the capability of making their own choices. The decisions that they will make in the future will determine how evil they are viewed by others. Although one’s nature and nurture do affect their life, it is their own free will that determines whether or not they are evil.
Each person feels rivalry or competition to other humans, for the majority of their lifetime. This rivalry greatly affects our ability to understand others, and this eventually results in war, discrimination, and enmity. Children are definitely culprits for acting inhumane to each other with teasing, competition, and often hurtful remarks. Although this is the way children often act, it is in the teenage years realization, along with careful thought and consideration, brings each individual to understand wider prospects of human nature; that people coldly drive ahead for themselves alone. Man’s inhumanity1 to man is a way for people to protect themselves from having pain inflicted on them by fellow humans, and achieving their goals and desires free from interference of others.
Human’s, according to the bible, will always be evil because of one action; the action of biting the apple. Films like Fargo, Magnolia, and Pleasantville portray human nature constantly “biting the apple.” These films seem to share many views on how human nature is portrayed with the Bible. Betrayal and forgiveness are two prominent themes in the Bible as well as all three of these films. In particular, the film Magnolia seems to have almost every character commit betrayal of some kind. The one character that is true to Bonhoeffer’s “true discipleship” is Officer Jim Kurring. He values the lives he saves more than his own life, he is truly unselfish.
...ences the individuals dealt through in the Nazi concentration camps. He writes to avoid any personal bias, as he was a prisoner himself and emphasizes the notion that man has the ability to determine what will become of his life, as he himself was able to apply this thought while living three years in captivity. His notion of finding meaning in life becomes a key factor in survival, which was ultimately able to help him and help others under his teachings, to make it out from the camps alive with a positive attitude. The need for hope, gave him a purpose to keep fighting, although others became struck down with the thought of suicide. Though Victor E. Frankl faced many difficulties and challenges while in captivity and days following his release, he comes to the ultimate realization that life will never cease to have meaning, even when under the cruelest conditions.
The human condition, the ongoing balance between good and evil inside people and their environment. Overall, the human condition becomes a balance and struggle between the three areas affect personal, emotional, spiritual and mental growth. Similarly, humans demonstrate an imperfect balance of aggression, selfishness, and lust mixed with compassion, love, trust, and hope. Humans encompass an equilibrium of an imperfect good and evil. Similarly, No one’s inherently good nor inherently evil, instead attitude, purpose, and thought often determine whether people respond negatively or positively to both celebrations, or tragedies. Therefore, The Human Condition balances both good and evil, while good and evil both exist on their own.
The human condition, a concept prevalent in several pieces of literature, encompasses the emotional, moral, questioning, and observant nature of humans. This concept is often used by authors to emphasize the characteristics that set humans apart from other living creature. Edgar Allan Poe’s dark fantasy piece “The Fall of the House of Usher” perfectly depicts the human condition as it conveys how fear and over-thinking can control one’s actions and life.
The Dhammapada speaks a universal truth, that “desire is unquenchable,” and explains that “he who wishes to awake, consumes his desires joyfully” (Chapter 14). These statements prove similar to the four noble truths, that to live is to suffer, and desire causes suffering; therefore, one cannot avoid temptation because it is ubiquitous. When explaining the outcomes of “craving pleasure or nursing pain,” the Buddha articulates that “there is only sorrow” (Chapter 16). Desire clearly only causes difficulty when attempting to achieve Nirvana, and the Dhammapada seeks to convey the importance of clearing the mind and purifying one’s thoughts. Continuing to contrast lust and happiness, the Buddha explains that “there is pleasure and there is bliss, forgo the first to possess the second” (Chapter 21). One cannot have genuine jubilation while yearnings and allurements cloud the mind. Expressed throughout Buddhist teachings and a main religious text, the action of overpowering desire and lewd thoughts proves a crucial step in eventually reaching
Lust is the first of these so-called deadly sins. It is described as having sexual perversion and can also be characterized as having an excessive desire for the pleasures of the body. Lust is a deadly sin that is a common topic among many tabloids. Celebrities tend to have many incidents where they commit the sin of lust. One of these occurrences is Justin ...
During the 1500’s a number of empires and cities vied for power and wealth. One city, however, seemed to rise above the rest. Its great power and wealth made it one of the most influential cities during this period; culturally, politically and economically. It was the city of Seville.
The purpose of this essay will be to discuss whether human nature is good, or evil, or both good and evil, or neither good nor evil. To facilitate the following discussion, human nature here would be defined as the distinguishing characteristics we born with, that we tend to have naturally without the influence of external factors. The definition agrees to Xunzi’s, that nature is what is given by Heaven: one cannot learn it; one cannot acquire it by effort. This essay will explain that the deepest essence of human nature is self-preservation and reproduction, which cannot be truly classified into good or evil. It is followed by how we are diverged to behave goodly or badly, argument against the “good nature theory” and different between self-preservation with greed and aggression.
Whether or not humans are essentially evil or sympathetic is a question that has long left many philosophers in a state of conflict. Through the evaluation of natural human qualities, many different opinions have been formed. The so called “laws” of the world attempt to define a set of uncertain rules which are to govern society in its most raw form, dictate moral rights and wrongs, and create boundaries. Every single action can be separated into any of these three categories, depending upon the action. The Bible states that it is only through baptism that a sin may be removed from the carrier. Non-religious opinions may offer a similar opinion in a sense that humans possess the capability of committing evil acts. Human beings are in constant pursuit of their basic necessities and they are without limits to what they will do to obtain them. Since humans are individualistically driven, the ultimate desires are ones for pleasure, comfort, and contact. These can usually be found in the limits of a community environment. Our desires cross paths, since the desire of sensual experiences and close human contact in the form of community correspond with the desire for individualistic advancement and success. Competition causes holes within society, and gives rise to upper and lower classes. This causes the gap between the rich and those living in means of poverty. A truly selfless society, and one without evil would share the wealth equally, creating a level playing field for all those in the community, yet this is not the case. Friction among the classes of people results in corruption, jealousy, crime, and other small offenses. Living in a community requires trust and faith in the overall nature of others to do the right th...