What is It to Be Human
Content
What is it to be Human? According to Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? what is the fundamental quality associated with being human? What parts of the novel support your answer? ------------------------Here are some other definitions of what it means to be human. Which of them do you agree or disagree with? Man’s ability to reason: “Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.” -Blaise Pascal
it is man’s ability to be irrational, to insist that 2+2 may equal 5. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
the ability to feel shame. “Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to.” - Mark Twain
For the writers of Star Trek in the 20th century, it is man’s ability to feel emotion (Captain Kirk) and not to be dominated by cold reason alone (the Vulcan, Mr. Spock).
• Do you think Dick is right? Is Empathy the defining quality of human beings? If not, what do you think is the essential quality of human beings? • What distinguishes us from animals? What distinguishes us from robots? • Can a human being himself be “inhuman”? If so, what might make someone inhuman?
it is man’s ability to be irrational, to insist that 2+2 may equal 5. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
the ability to feel shame. “Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to.” - Mark Twain
For the writers of Star Trek in the 20th century, it is man’s ability to feel emotion (Captain Kirk) and not to be dominated by cold reason alone (the Vulcan, Mr. Spock).
• Do you think Dick is right? Is Empathy the defining quality of human beings? If not, what do you think is the essential quality of human beings? • What distinguishes us from animals? What distinguishes us from robots? • Can a human being himself be “inhuman”? If so, what might make someone inhuman?
