The Human Of Human Beings

At some point in time we have all wondered what it means to human, and what we are supposed to do with our lives. Throughout the centuries, there have been gradual changes in what it means to be human. Through Pico della Mirandola we will how man became the measure and took the place of God, through Charles Darwin we will see how nature and science began to take the place of man, and through the art of Friedrich we can visually see all of these changes.

Empathy and caring is an essential part of human health. We love because we can empathize (Szalavitz & Perry, 2010). Empathy underlies everything that makes society work; such as altruism, collaboration, love and charity. Failures to empathize are a key part of social problems, such as crime, violence, war, racism, child abuse and inequity. Although we are genetically predisposed to care for others, the development of empathy requires a lifelong process of relational interaction (Szalavitz & Perry, 2010). More importantly, the first relationship humans experience, the

What is empathy besides it being a factor in both the film Blade Runner by Ridley Scott and the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick empathy is defined as understanding of another’s feelings. Empathy is a word that has the strength to carry many meanings depending on who you are for instance visitors to the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C feel sympathy towards those who died, those people do not feel sympathy for the lamps they throw away or televisions or any technology. Empathy plays a major part in both the film and the book as an underlying theme.

Empathy is the ability to understand and experience the feelings of others, particularly others’ suffering. Humanity’s gift of understanding complex emotions ushers in a new way of understanding ourselves and how we react to stimuli. This ultimately leads to questioning of everything, leading us to one strong notion: Does empathy guide or hinder moral action?

Empathy, the ability to recognize and share feelings of others, has been in our brains since the beginning of time. It was discovered by the Greeks which they called it, “Empatheia” meaning, “In feeling.” Then a German psychologist Vischer in 1837 and he called it

Based on Jeremy Rifkin’s article “A Change of Heart about Animals” I totally agree with what he has to say. As humans we are born with empathy. As we grow older we learn how to develop more empathy. One of our journeys while on this planet is to appeal to humans empathy. We learn how to have more empathy to those who we care about the most.

It is debatable if humans truly felt empathy or they simply feigned empathy. This can be noted in both Mercerism and through Rick, the bounty hunter. Some human characters are cold and short with each other. For example Rick is distant with Iran, his wife. In the opening chapter Rick and Iran have a disagreement where Iran threatens and sizes Rick up by stating "for greater venom, then I'll dial the same.

have deep and meaningful relationships with others when we don't have empathy. Without empathy, we

     "What does it mean to be human?"  This is a question that is often asked in literary works.  Is it our intelligence that separates us from being like any other animal on this planet or is it something else?  Perhaps it is our ability to feel empathy for other humans and other forms of life.  If this is so, then how is it that we also have violence and wars where humans hurt and kill other humans?  How is it that humans can hurt animals without a second thought, if it's our ability to feel empathy that separates us from them?  Both Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut explore these questions in their novels Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream

We need to have empathy in our lives because we all judge people way more than we should. As soon as we meet someone new we automatically judge them. If we all just had empathy we wouldn’t judge them for what they are doing wrong but how they could get help. The book “To Kill A Mockingbird” kind of hit on the subject hypocrisy. Our world runs on hypocrisy when it should be running on empathy. Mostly everyone in the world judges someone before they really know them and they point out all of their flaws. When instead all of us should be seeing how we can help that new person that you met or maybe see what they are going through first before we make a final judgement.

What does it mean to be human? It is a question that has occupied the minds of many people for hundreds, if not thousands of years. In the documentary, ‘The Human Experience’, two brothers and their friends travel around the world to come up with an answer, through working with the homeless, communities plagued with AIDS and leprosy, as well as children with disabilities. By the end of the documentary, they emerge with a newfound understanding and appreciation of the human condition, and discover what it truly means to be human. For their first experience, Cliff and Jeff took to the streets of New York and lived like homeless men during the coldest week of winter.

What makes the Human race different from species of animals on Earth? Is it the ability to think cognitively? Or may it be because our physical characteristics such as walking on two feet and having thumbs? While these may be true in some aspect one would agree that it is our ability to perceive and feel emotion, one of these emotions, empathy. Now establishing this how can empathy be gained from? From human interactions, through viewing others or is it through literature. Literature is an amazing gateway to perceiving empathy which inflicts emotion deep within us. Empathy is proven to arise from reading strong literature by scientific research, through "great books" which in turn also teach good morals, and in how it has changed my life completely.

Andy Clark, in Natural-Born Cyborgs, offers an extended argument that technology’s impact on and intertwining with ordinary biological human life is not to be feared, either psychologically or morally. Clark offers several key concepts towards his line of reasoning. Clark argues that a human being thinks and reasons based on the biological brain and body dynamically linked with the culture and technological tools transparently accessible to the human. This form of thinking and reasoning develops new "thinking systems" that which over time become second nature thoughts and reasons and are the basis of even newer "thinking systems." It is a repetitive cycle that continues forever being built upon previous systems.

Most definitions of empathy are based on the same core idea - empathy is the ability to understand and identify someone else’s thoughts and feelings, as if they were one’s own (wordreference online dictionary, 2016). Although it’s been said “there are probably nearly as many definitions of empathy as people working on the topic.” (de Vignemont & Singer, 2006, p.435) suggesting that there is no singular way to even define empathy, let alone explain its impact on our behaviour. Due to the sheer depth and complexity of empathy it’s understandable that each discipline within psychology presents it’s own explanation for why we experience it, and how it can affect our interaction with the world around us. Psychologists have been exploring empathy for decades, in hope of gaining a complete grasp of what it means and how it can vary between each person, therefore its important we look at different psychological perspectives to try to understand it’s many dimensions.

I believe empathy is formed at home. When we are kids, our parents teach us the golden rule, which is: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. As we grow older, we are taught that it´s important to care about people’s feelings. We grow up with the idea that we shouldn't only care about ourselves, but always be concerned for others. In my opinion, everyone should desire