What exactly makes a person a person. What makes a person a person? Interesting and concise information. Learning new material

How is man different from other living beings?
How are human qualities manifested?

The difference between humans and other living beings. What is a person? How is it different from animals? People have been thinking about these questions for a long time. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato answered them like this: "Man is a two-legged animal without feathers." Two thousand years later, the famous French physicist and mathematician B. Pascal objected to Plato: "A man without legs still remains a man, and a rooster without feathers does not become a man."

What distinguishes people from animals? There is, for example, a feature that is unique to humans: of all living beings, only humans have a soft earlobe. But is this fact the main thing that distinguishes man from animals?

Great thinkers came to the conclusion that the most important sign of a person is that he is a social being, or social (the Latin word socialis means "public"). (Recall from the history and biology courses what you know about the origin of man.) So, man is a social being. Only in society, in communication between people, did the formation of such human qualities as language (speech), the ability to think, etc.

Each born child becomes a person only in society. From birth, baby animals have instincts that help them navigate what they can and cannot eat, who can be attacked, and who should be feared. A human child after birth is the most unadapted to life of all living beings. And a person grows out of him only in a family, in a society where he is taught to live, they give him knowledge about the world around him, and form the ability to work.

There were cases when very young children got to animals. Growing up among animals, they did not learn to walk on two legs, talk, use various objects. They were not able to think like people, and when they were among people, they behaved like trapped animals.

But, being a public (social) being, man does not cease to be a being of nature. Nature created the human body. Only ghosts in scary tales are incorporeal. The result of the long development of nature is the human brain. Man is a wonderful creation of nature. It has many biological needs: to breathe, eat, sleep; it needs a certain thermal environment. Our body, blood, brain belong to nature. Therefore, man is a biological being. This is manifested in human anatomy and physiology, in the course of neuro-cerebral, electrical, chemical and other processes in the human body.

The social and the biological are merged together in man. The straight gait, the structure of the brain, the outline of the face, the shape of the hands - all this is the result of changes that have taken place over a long time (millions of years). Each child has fingers obedient to his will: he can take a brush and paints, draw. But he can become a painter only in society. Everyone born has a brain and a vocal apparatus, but he can learn to think and talk only in society. Every person, like every animal, has a self-preservation instinct. This means that in man the biological and social principles are organically interconnected, and only in such unity does man exist. This inseparable unity makes it possible to say that man is a biosocial being.

Thinking and speech. Along with labor and social relations, the most important difference between man and animals is the ability to think. Mental activity has evolved along with the development of the brain. Even the most highly organized modern animal - the great ape - does not have such a highly developed brain. Attempts to teach the monkey to think like a man, through many years of study with her, were unsuccessful.

Thanks to thinking, a person not only adapts to natural conditions, like an animal, but transforms the world. He creates what nature does not produce. After all, nature does not build cars, houses, railways. And man, transforming natural materials, creates new objects with the qualities he needs. To do this, he uses the accumulated knowledge. Without knowledge about the properties of natural objects, a person could not make any technical inventions. But to create technology, transport, means of communication, not only the ability to accumulate knowledge is necessary, but also the ability to use this knowledge to create mental models of those objects that a person needs and that he wants to make, produce. A person will first think, imagine what goal he wants to achieve, and then he will work to realize his plan. There are animals that also create something new: a spider weaves a web, a bee builds a honeycomb. But no one teaches them this, an innate instinct works in them. And none of the named (as well as others) representatives of wildlife can do anything more serious, complicated. K. Marx wrote that "the worst architect differs from the best bee from the very beginning in that, before building a cell from wax, he has already built it in his head." Consequently, human activity has a creative character: based on knowledge of the world, he creates something new, first in thoughts, and then by practical actions.

The need of people for communication, thanks to which only collective work is possible, led to the appearance of the first words (i.e., language). Human speech gradually developed, helping people to exchange thoughts. It is possible, of course, to transmit some signals to each other with the help of gestures (for example, we nod our heads in agreement), drawings, drawings and other signs. However, verbal language is the most developed, universal (universal) means of expressing thought. When a person reads a book, he joins the highest achievements of human thought, receives deep knowledge, perceives the author's feelings expressed in words. When a person thinks something to himself, this is accompanied by an internal "silent conversation" - imperceptible movements of the muscles of the tongue in the oral cavity. Thus, in addition to written and oral speech, there is also inner speech, soundless, not visible or heard by others.

There is a close relationship between thought and language. They cannot be separated from each other without destroying both. Language does not exist without thinking, and thinking cannot be separated from language.

Monkeys, which were tried to be taught to speak through special classes, were unable to master speech. And not only because the human vocal apparatus has been formed for millions of years, but also because a highly organized brain capable of thinking is also the result of a long historical development.

How does a person realize himself? Probably, every person would like his life not to be in vain. When a person passes away, they write on the tombstone: born in such and such a year, died in such and such. There is a dash between two dates. What is behind this dash? He drank, ate, walked the earth - and that's it? Or left behind a good memory?

Let's remember A. S. Pushkin: “No, I will not die all - the soul in the cherished lyre will survive my ashes and run away from decay ...” What remains for people? Created by the poet's work - his poems, poems, stories. Architects and builders leave towns and villages to people, scientists and writers leave books, gardeners leave parks and gardens. But not everyone can be builders and gardeners, you say. And right. However, philosophers have noticed: it is human nature to want to stand out in some way, to distinguish oneself in some way, to become noticed, famous, to deserve recognition, which would be preserved even after he passes away. However, this desire sometimes takes an ugly form. So, the Greek from the city of Ephesus Herostratus in the IV century. BC e., in order to immortalize his name, he burned the temple of Artemis - one of the seven wonders of the world.

Now in our life more and more attention is paid to the acquisition of material goods. Possession of things in itself does not characterize a person: the one who has things can be both a worthy and insignificant person. The German psychologist and sociologist Erich Fromm (1900-1980) wrote: “...Most people find it too difficult to give up their possession orientation: any attempt to do so causes them great anxiety, as if they have lost everything that gave them a sense of security, as if they, who could not swim, had been thrown into the abyss of the waves. They are unaware that, having cast aside the crutch that their property serves for them, they will begin to rely on their own strength and walk on their own feet. What does it mean? A person, according to E. Fromm, must be active. And this means "letting your abilities, talents, all the wealth of human talents, with which - albeit to varying degrees - every person is endowed, manifest itself."

Abilities, talents of a person are manifested and developed in the process of activity.

The child is playing. Builds a house out of cubes. Build a fortress out of sand. Assembles a model from the details of the designer. He plays mom, putting the doll to bed, pilot, salesman, car driver, astronaut. In the game, he repeats the actions of the elders, acquiring the first experience of human activity. The game teaches the child to plan his actions, to outline their goals, to look for suitable means. Diverse human qualities develop in gaming activities.

There comes a time when learning activity develops next to the game. Experience is mastered in it* step by step. Studying educational texts, reading works of fiction, solving problems, performing various educational tasks, a person acquires the knowledge and skills necessary for life in society, improves thinking and speech, develops his creative abilities, acquires a profession. Along with studies comes work. First, this is housework, then, perhaps, in a school workshop, on a personal plot, and then the work of an adult - professional activity in production, in the service sector, intellectual activity. Labor expands the creative possibilities of a person, contributes to the formation of purposefulness, independence, perseverance, sociability and other human qualities.

Employment may vary. Cultivated fields, tools, houses and temples - all these are the fruits of industrial activity. "Russian Truth", Sudebnik 1497, other legislative acts are the result of state activity. The expansion of borders, the formation of a multinational state is a consequence of political activity. Victories on Lake Peipus, on the Kulikovo field, in the Northern War or the Patriotic War of 1812 are the result of military activity. The discoveries of M. V. Lomonosov, the inventions of I. P. Kulibin, the works of D. I. Mendeleev are a product of intellectual activity. The famous Russian ballet, the paintings of the Wanderers are the embodiment of artistic activity.

In activity, self-realization of the individual takes place, i.e., the embodiment of plans and life goals in reality, which is possible only under the condition of free human activity. It is impelled to it, first of all, by the inner need of a person, his own desire to fulfill his life goal, to his own free development.

Life goals can be very different: someone wants to devote his life to science, someone to business, another sees himself as a military man or dreams of having a big family and raising children. At the same time, it is important that the goals of each do not diverge from the interests of society. Therefore, for example, it is no coincidence that in our time, the activities of hackers - computer scientists who penetrate other people's information systems in order to acquire information or introduce false data into them are of great concern everywhere.

The realization of life goals - self-realization - requires the exertion of a person's strength and can be considered as one of the indicators of his willpower. In the process of self-realization, in the course of his activity, a person overcomes the difficulties that arise, his own laziness, timidity, disbelief in his own strength. Thanks to this, significant results for society are achieved, the abilities of the individual develop. It is the socially useful results of a person's self-realization that bring him respect and recognition from other people, i.e., self-assertion of the individual takes place.

And we hope that you share the thoughts expressed by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov: “... I want to live independently of future generations, and not only for them. Life is given once, and you want to live it cheerfully, meaningfully, beautifully. I want to play a prominent, independent, prudent role, I want to make history so that the same generations do not have the right to say about each of us: it was insignificance or even worse ... ".

Summarize. What are the differences between humans and animals? First, a person is able to produce tools and use them. Secondly, he has a complexly organized brain, thinking and articulate speech. Thirdly, a person is capable of purposeful creative activity.

Man is a biosocial being, which is a special link in the development of living organisms on Earth.

Basic concepts

Man, self-realization.

Terms

Social, biological, thinking, speech.

Questions for self-examination

What do the words "Man is a biosocial being" mean?
What properties of a person are biological?
What qualities of a person have a social nature (that is, they arise only in society)?
What is the creative nature of human activity?
What is the relationship between thinking and speech?
How are human abilities manifested?
What is human self-realization?
Why is self-realization of a person possible only in activity?

Tasks

People build dams on the rivers, and beavers build dams on the rivers. Explain how human activity differs from that of a beaver.
The spider skillfully weaves a web - a network with which it obtains food. A man fishes with a fishing net. He uses the net in a sieve, in a tennis and badminton racket. The man-made tulle curtain on the window is also a net. Consider how human web-making is different from spider-web weaving.
Read the poem and express your attitude to the words of the author.
Explain the difference between the two statements:
1. man is a biological and social being;
2. Man is a biosocial being.
Indicate what is inherent in a person by nature, and what is society.
Describe what the social (public) essence of a person is.
Name which of the considered human qualities you value most of all.
Refer to the above words of A.P. Chekhov and think: can each person play a prominent role in society; noble role? Can any of you make history? If yes, how?
Express your attitude to the statement of the French historian Mark Blok: “History ... has its own aesthetic joys, unlike the joys of any other science. The spectacle of human activity, which is its special subject, is more than any other capable of capturing the human imagination.

Every person has the ability to choose their own path in life. Any step is the choice of an internal dispute between good and evil, high feeling and base thoughts. Consider what makes a person a person - briefly? Love for life and the environment, merging with society with pure thoughts and reason. Each person is born a human being, but life principles and his ability to adapt to any situation, along with other factors, create morality in a person, one of the main criteria in the life of a social being.

How does a person become a person?

Alone with his thinking, a person himself educates and forms in himself those qualities that make a person a person. What is needed for this, first of all:

to love and create;
forgive and believe
respect and protect others;
be able to thank and be grateful;
be responsible and fair;
be honest and conscientious.

These are perhaps the most important advantages in the development and self-education of a person. Wisdom can also be attributed, but it comes to a person over the years. In addition, each person is initially capable of:

to have thinking, reason, articulate speech and consciousness;
to conscious purposeful activity;
model your behavior
express a value attitude to reality;
anticipate the consequences of your actions;
satisfy needs, both spiritual and material.

It is inherent in each person to develop human values and qualities in himself in the process of communicating with his own kind.

Each person has the right to express their emotions and feelings, it is these qualities that complement the complete image of a person. Among other things, it is necessary to have a family for the sake of which a person is ready to create and complete all undertakings.

The simplest requirements for a person are to maintain a clean appearance and create comfortable conditions in their lives throughout their life path. A person should be ready to help anyone in need, in trouble or a difficult situation. He should instill in himself and his children such qualities as kindness, sincerity, compassion and responsiveness.

It is interesting -

As for modern children, they, gaining maturity, only then become a person when they “absorb” the experience of their fathers. This is important for the new generation - this is their life example. They must feel the obligation to preserve and enrich themselves, to pass on to their children everything that the older generation left them, up to a grateful memory. The endless heredity of generations, held together by spiritual kinship, courageous readiness for self-denial for the sake of those who will live on earth, is the force that makes a person a person.

THE ORIGIN OF MAN If we mentally look at the path he traveled, we will see what huge changes have occurred in the way of life of people, in their appearance, forms of communication and in the environment.

THE ORIGIN OF HUMANS: THE BASIC THEORY "The origin of man and sexual selection" MAN DESCENTED FROM MONKEYS XIX CENTURY CHARLES DARWIN "The role of labor in the process of transformation of apes into humans" , FRIEDRICH ENGELS LABOR CREATED MAN the concept of human biosocial nature

HUMAN ORIGIN: HOW IS IT STUDYED? missing links are established; genetic mechanisms are studied; tools of labor, “traces of life” of ancient people are studied. Anthropogenesis (the process of separating a person from the animal world) Anthropo sociogenesis

THE ORIGIN OF HUMANS but as Kr Saudi Arabia Ethiopia reoem. Africa is considered the ancestral home of mankind. Sudan Kenya

ORIGIN OF HUMAN Driopithecus species period characteristics 14-20 million years ago Common ancestor of man and great apes

ORIGIN OF HUMANS type of Ramapithecus period characteristic 10-14 million years ago of a creature that steadily switched to a lifestyle in the savannas with the systematic use of tools

ORIGIN OF HUMANS Species Australopithecus Period Characteristics 5-8 million years ago Used partly crafted tools or those found in nature

ORIGIN OF HUMAN species period Homo habilis - a skilled man about 2 million years ago characteristic

ORIGIN OF HUMAN species Homo erectus - Homo erectus period characteristic 1-1, 3 million years ago knew how to make quite perfect hunting tools, mastered fire, which allowed him to switch to boiled food, possibly had speech

ORIGIN OF HUMAN species period characteristics Homo sapiens - Homo sapiens Cro-Magnon subspecies 150-200 thousand years ago 40-50 thousand years ago Could organize collective forms of labor activity, build dwellings, make clothes, use highly developed speech

ORIGIN OF MAN: FACTORS OF INFLUENCE degree of solar activity periodic change of the Earth's magnetic poles ionizing radiation of cosmic origin intensive movement of lithospheric plates, faults and cracks in the earth's crust climatic changes changes in the structure and structure of the brain THIS LEAD TO ...

BIOLOGICAL CHANGES began to prefer meat to plant foods liberation from the blind power of animal instincts gestation

FORMATION OF SOCIETY Russian philosopher N. A. Berdyaev - "man is a fundamental novelty in NATURE" German philosopher J. Herder - "man is a freedman of NATURE" Man is a biosocial being

HUMAN - BIOSOCIAL SYSTEM H Biological Social instincts activity biological communication Mental development program thinking beginning anatomy, speech inner world human physiology € to the higher character mammals emotional sphere Man is a subject of socio-historical activity and culture, a biosocial being with consciousness, articulate speech , moral qualities and the ability to make tools

MAN IS A BIOSOCIAL SYSTEM The term "man" is used to characterize the universal qualities and abilities inherent in all people; the concept emphasizes the existence of such a community as the human race An individual is a single representative of the human race, a specific person Individuality is a unique originality, distinctive features (internal and external) from other people Personality is a stable system of socially significant features that characterize an individual as a member of a particular society .

HUMAN IS A BIOSOCIAL SYSTEM The difference between man and animals Animal They use only natural tools Behavior is subject to instincts They do not have a highly developed brain and cannot speak Man Makes tools and uses them as a means of producing material wealth Carries out conscious purposeful creative activity Has a highly developed brain, thinking and speech

foundation of the foundations

Man, as you know, is a social and collective being. It can exist only by maintaining social ties. There are cases when small children fell into the jungle and were picked up by animals, but after some time, they were returned back to people. They were just humanoid beings. They lacked speech, communication skills, and, most importantly, they could not

adapt socially, all the while striving back to the jungle. Communication with their own kind is vital for everyone, this is what makes a person a person. Homo sapiens is not born with a set of fixed skills. Of course, we have basic reflexes in our arsenal. We need them for physiological existence. But in addition to them, we are given one more skill. It is he who is at the core of what makes a man a man. This is the ability to learn. We can process the experience accumulated by our ancestors, develop our own and pass it on to our descendants. That is why humanity is developing so fast. Dinosaurs evolved over hundreds of millions of years. And we got down to about a hundred thousand. From the universal point of view, these are, in general, moments.

Society and man

The following factors influence the development of each personality: heredity, environment, upbringing and one's own cognitive activity. All of them are closely related. Even fifty years ago, a line was clearly drawn between them. In the West, it was believed that heredity and environment are the main ones. So

to say, you can’t pick genes with your finger. Soviet scientists argued that upbringing can kill any hereditary tendencies, and a communist society makes a person deeply moral. As time has shown, both were wrong. In the Soviet state, universal virtue was far away. Yes, and heredity can still be overcome. What makes a person a person? Maybe Wednesday. She, no doubt, plays an important role in this matter. Here we are talking about the formation of passions, habits, worldview. But she doesn't solve everything.

Family and school

The formation of personality originates in the family. Here you have heredity, environment, and upbringing, multiplied by your own activity. Our habits, attitude to life, our complexes and fears - everything comes from there. We often treat our parents condescendingly, we consider them behind the times. But watch yourself: do your gestures, intonations, statements remind anyone?

Yes, you can't argue with genes. And our attitude to life is adopted by our children. And if you want to educate a worthy person, educate yourself first of all. Because no matter how you hammer rules into your child that you do not adhere to, you will not succeed, except that your son or daughter will learn to be hypocritical. Because that's what their parents do. Many believe that education should be done by the school, teachers are paid for this. But does education make a person moral? No, this is a delusion. Morality is the ability to empathize, responsibility for one's actions. This can only be taught by close and caring people. So everything that surrounds him. The better the world in which a child grows up, the more human he will be.

Most often, students have to write essays on this subject. At leisure, I wrote an essay on social studies, maybe this example will be useful to someone.

Social Studies Essay:

According to L. Feuerbach, man is a part of nature, a biological, sensual-bodily being. It is impossible not to agree with his opinion. Man, whose development process - anthropogenesis began more than 2 million years ago, really combines the biological and spiritual principles.

There are various theories of its appearance. The evolutionary one has the greatest number of adherents. In accordance with this theory, developed by the naturalist Charles Darwin, modern people descend from anthropoid apes. Some are of the opinion that life came to the planet from outer space. According to theological theory, man was created by God, and the basis for this was the dust of the earth. After its appearance, anthropogenesis begins.

This process combines the formation of society and man as an individual and personality. All these concepts characterize it from different positions, but prove the combination of natural and spiritual features in it. Man is a biological being, first of all, because he is a part of nature. In addition, he has instincts, base needs. The products of the activity of nature in the human body are the body and the brain. All these characteristics support Feuerbach's idea of biological traits.

As a spiritual being, a person is characterized by the ability to suppress and control instincts. Many qualities, such as the ability to communicate, speech, thinking and a number of other skills, appear only among people. A person does not imagine himself outside of society. This is evidenced by the concept of N.M. Karamzin personality. It includes the definition of man as a social being. In other words, a person is formed only in society and functions most effectively there. It is no coincidence that people who grew up outside of society among animals are qualitatively different from individuals who were brought up among their own kind.

The ability to control instincts is the most striking argument confirming that a person is a sensual-bodily being. Social norms, upbringing, morality - all this does not allow individuals to act, focusing solely on their desires. Feelings play an important role in human actions. The proof of this is the behavior of people in difficult situations. Mercy for the wounded, compassion, for example, became stronger than the sense of self-preservation among nurses who rescued soldiers under bullets during the Great Patriotic War.

In conclusion, it is worth noting that Feuerbach is absolutely right in characterizing man as both a natural and sensual-corporeal being. From birth, possessing exclusively biological features, the individual in the process of socialization becomes a personality, in which his spiritual principle is manifested.