HUMAN—GENERAL CONCEPT
Introduction. The Paradox of Human Self-Knowledge
Throughout history, human beings have sought to understand the Reality around them.
They observe natural phenomena, investigate the properties of matter, identify the laws of motion, study the structure of living organisms, and discover new forms of interaction between matter and energy.
Every phenomenon they encounter becomes an object of investigation. Human beings seek to establish its nature, identify its characteristic properties, determine its internal structure, and understand the laws governing its existence.
In this way, the body of human knowledge gradually takes shape.
Scientific disciplines emerge, concepts are formed, definitions are established, and classifications are developed. Each domain of Reality acquires its own language of description and methods of investigation.
Human beings investigate space and time, matter and energy, life and consciousness. They create highly complex technological systems capable of performing calculations, processing information, and reproducing certain functions of human intelligence.
Yet among the many phenomena under investigation, there is one that occupies an entirely special position.
It is the human being itself.
And here a peculiar paradox of human knowledge becomes apparent.
A being capable of investigating the surrounding world, formulating definitions, and discovering fundamental laws of existence encounters considerable difficulty when it becomes the object of its own definition.
What is a human being?
At first glance, the question seems simple.
In biology, the human being is defined as a member of the species Homo sapiens. Anatomy and physiology study the human organism. Psychology examines mental processes, experiences, and behavior. Anthropology considers human beings in their biological, cultural, and historical dimensions. Sociology investigates their social relations. Philosophy addresses questions of consciousness, freedom, personality, and the meaning of existence.
Each of these disciplines has its own subject matter, conceptual framework, and accumulated body of knowledge.
But another question then arises.
Does the sum of this knowledge provide a holistic understanding of what a human being actually is?
A description of the organism reveals its biological structure, but does not, in itself, exhaust the question of human self-awareness.
The study of mental processes explains many mechanisms of perception, memory, experience, and behavior, but leaves fundamental questions about the nature of the individual “I” and subjecthood unresolved.
The study of social relations shows how human beings exist among others, but does not replace a definition of the human being as the bearer of those relations.
As a result, a characteristic situation emerges: individual aspects of human existence have been investigated in extraordinary detail, while integrating them into a unified conceptual system remains a complex interdisciplinary and philosophical task.
One may spend many years in education, study numerous subjects, become acquainted with various scientific accounts of the world, and yet never encounter a systematic investigation of the question: what is a human being as an integral whole?
Human beings are taught to understand the surrounding world, acquire knowledge, develop professional abilities, and perform particular social functions.
But the question of their own nature is often distributed across different fields of knowledge, each of which examines only a particular aspect of human existence.
This does not mean that there is no science of the human being.
The problem lies in the distinction between accumulating knowledge about human beings and developing a holistic understanding of human nature.
This problem takes on particular depth because of the position of the investigator.
In other fields of inquiry, a person turns toward an object that may be regarded as existing outside oneself.
But when human nature itself becomes the subject of investigation, a fundamentally different situation arises.
The human being is simultaneously the investigator and the object of their own investigation.
Human beings seek to understand the nature of reason by means of reason itself.
They investigate consciousness while possessing consciousness.
They attempt to define the nature of their own “I” while remaining that very “I” which conducts the investigation.
The question of the human being thus becomes not only a question about the organization of a particular form of life, but also a question about the nature of the knowing subject itself.
What is common to all members of humankind, and what constitutes each person’s unique individuality?
Which properties does a person possess by virtue of their origin, and which are acquired over the course of life?
How are biological processes, mental activity, rationality, and self-awareness related to one another?
What is human personality?
What accounts for the human capacity not only to perceive and adapt to the surrounding Reality, but also consciously to determine goals, make decisions, and transform the conditions of one’s own existence?
And finally, what enables a human being to recognize themselves as an independent “I”?
Each of these questions addresses one aspect of the broader problem.
Yet a systematic investigation requires an initial concept in relation to which all these questions can form a coherent whole.
That initial concept must be the human being itself.
The present investigation does not seek to replace the existing sciences of the human being or to reject the knowledge they have accumulated.
On the contrary, it proceeds from the need to bring reliable knowledge of human nature together into a coherent conceptual architecture that makes it possible to distinguish established facts, their scientific interpretations, philosophical propositions, and ontological hypotheses.
At the same time, the unity of the human being must not be assumed to have been proven merely because different aspects of human existence can be listed within a single definition. The nature of their interconnections is itself a subject of investigation.
The aim is not to propose a final answer in advance, but to establish the necessary foundations for developing one step by step.
The investigation must proceed from the general definition of the human being toward an understanding of human nature, internal organization, individuality, and the patterns through which personality is formed.
And it must begin with a question that is among the simplest in form and yet among the deepest in substance:
What is the human being?
The answer to this question is needed not only to understand what a human being is today.
It is also needed to understand what possibilities are inherent in human nature, how those possibilities unfold, and what a human being may become through the process of their own development.