Human condition
From Academic Kids Online Encyclopedia
The human condition is a term which 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 the way humans react to or cope with these events is the human condition.
The term is sometimes used in literature to describe the joy and terror of being and existence. The term may have gained popular currency with The Human Condition, a film trilogy directed by Masaki Kobayashi which examined these and related concepts.
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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
Awareness
Unlike what is believed of other animals, 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.
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.
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.
Overheard in passing
Some comments which reveal the condition of others:
- "My husband doesn't understand. I need to ..."
- "Now Jimmy, if you don't behave, I am going to have to find some nice family that will take you. ..."
- "I'm bored. Let's ..."
- "If I had enough money, we could ... "
- "I need to make today count."
- "Again? Perhaps. Perhaps."
- "If only I was somewhere else..."
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.
