human condition in literature essay

The Human Condition: What It Is, How to Find It, Why We Talk About It, & How To Write About It

• Post author By Riley M
• Post date January 18, 2021

I remember being in high school when my English teachers would toss out the phrase “the human condition” as we discussed the dystopian nightmare of Orwell’s  1984 , or Jay Gatsby’s unshakeable obsession with the past. The phrase, at first, meant nothing to me– I had never heard of it before, yet my teachers seemed to think it was relevant enough to bring up with nearly every novel we read. I even remember once being told by a fellow classmate, “If you write about the human condition in your paper, you’ll get a good grade.”

So, what really is the human condition? And why is it worth talking about? And why is its mention in an essay rewarded with a good grade? Well, let’s first say that I don’t think that last bit is necessarily always the case, but that just shows us that the human condition is definitely worth discussing.

‘Defining’ the Human Condition

Instead of listing some sort of dictionary definition of the human condition, let’s go at it this way– referring to something as relating to “the human condition” means that it captures  some aspect of the universal experience of being a human.

And this “aspect” I’m talking about definitely isn’t just one kind of thing. It isn’t just one emotion, or one experience, or one characteristic. I mean, think of all the things that you know about being human, just for the next five seconds. I immediately think of things like becoming attached to people, falling in love, experiencing loss, feeling lonely, being flawed. You probably thought of different ones than I did, and those are only aspects that we thought of in five seconds. So, if we think of all the different kinds of literature and writing over the course of history, we can imagine how many different aspects of the human condition have been depicted.

But Why the Human Condition?

Now, obviously, when we read a novel, there’s no blaring bold faced font that says  THIS CHARACTER’S EXPERIENCE OF HEARTBREAK IS AN ASPECT OF THE HUMAN CONDITION . No, the wonderful variety of authors over the thousands of years of human writing have become much more subtle (and creative) than that. Instead, through their descriptions of characters’ emotions and experiences (often crafted with really cool diction and purposeful narration), they showcase aspects of the human condition. This is why when you’re reading a book, and a certain character is going through something, you are often able to think, “Oh yeah, I understand that feeling.” This is because it’s something that we’ve all experienced at one point, or will experience, because we’re all humans and we all deal with highs and lows.

And this is why writers talk about it—to connect with their readers. And also to convey some message about humanity, to portray something about this experience that they find compelling and important to their readers.

However, this understanding of the human condition can seem a bit convoluted, at it raises some questions in skeptics. The question on the lips of many of these folks is: “Can there really be one human condition?” And honestly, there is discussion to be had there.

Back to Definitions

We are all extremely different as humans, with our own identities, backgrounds, races, genders–the list goes on and on. So some say that there can’t be just one human condition when we take into account all these distinctions. However, what the idea of the human condition aims to convey is not that these differences don’t exist or that they are invalid to experience, but instead that we all have a commonality, too; that commonality is what it aims to capture. This is because the human condition is about general experiences that people go through regardless of what sets us all apart; people all deal with growing up, love, death, friendship, and maturation. While our differences and various identities often color these aspects of life and present them in different ways, they are still things that, at their roots, we all experience universally, more or less.

How to Implement It in Your Writing

Alright, so we know what the human condition is, how to find it when we’re reading, and why it’s there on the page—now all that’s left is including it in our own writing. After all, don’t we all want that “guaranteed A” on our next English essay? (Once again, I do not think that’s necessarily true).

As far as how to write about it, I think you have the tools with you already, after everything we discussed. You just need to go ahead and use them now. When you’re talking about a quote in a rhetorical analysis, explain how that author is exemplifying the human condition there through, for example, the character’s grief after losing a loved one. Or through displaying the main character’s infatuation with their new lover. The opportunities are endless, because the human condition encompasses the immense universality of simply being us , and authors are representing it in new and different ways every day.

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Existentialism Is a Humanism

Jean-paul sartre, everything you need for every book you read..

The driving observation behind Sartre’s existentialism is his notion that “existence precedes essence .” For Sartre, there is no preexisting human essence, set by God or nature, that determines what people should or will do. As a result, each individual must define their own essence, and their essence is merely the sum of their actions.

Essence, broadly, refers to the necessary properties that make a thing what it is. For at least two thousand years before Sartre, philosophers looked for a human essence by asking about characteristics common to all people. Generally, debates over the human essence concentrated on a problem inherited from Plato and Aristotle: did humans’ distinctive nature come from their form (an immaterial soul or mind) or their substance (biological matter)? Either way, determining the “essence” of humankind meant defining human nature in terms of its relationship to historical, biological, divine, and/or social forces. The resulting picture of the human essence promised not only to define humanity and predict human behavior, but also allow a framework for human morality to emerge. Sartre gives two examples of normal cases where essence would precede existence: the paper knife and the conventional picture of God. The paper knife’s essence is present in the mind of its human creator (who designs it for the particular purpose of cutting paper) before the knife actually exists. Similarly, under the conventional Christian picture, God creates humans from the mental blueprint of his own image. In this view, the “idea” of someone exists before that person is born, and the person’s life consists of growing to fulfill the destiny already set out for them in that idea.

Sartre responds to the problem of determining the human essence by throwing out the accepted wisdom that such an essence is universal at all. Although he was not the first to do so, and although he by no means denies the biological or behavioral similarities among people, Sartre nevertheless thinks that the essence of who any individual really is has nothing to do with humans’ universal traits. He argues that people do not live out predefined lives, but rather define themselves by living; people are not born with a readymade essence that determines who they are, but rather they choose their own essence through their commitments and actions. This is what he means when he says that, for humans, “existence precedes essence.”

Because existence precedes essence, Sartre argues that living a human life means having a projection and a project . These are the defining features of human subjectivity . Human life includes a projection in the sense that everyone imagines themselves: what they are like, what they will be like, and what they want to be like. This conscious projection of the self into the future constitutes each person’s developing sense of their own identity, meaning, or essence. The human project is acting to become what one projects oneself to be. Sartre compares a human life to an art project: both are capable of creating meaning through creativity and circumstance, even though there is no preset goal for either at the outset and there are no objective criteria for making the “best” piece of art or living the “best” human life. Instead, Sartre says that the measure of success in life is authenticity , or whether a person “is what he projects himself to be”—whether that person’s beliefs, actions, and self-image are consistent, or—in other words—whether their project matches their projection .

Sartre calls this state of living as a subject in the world the human condition . He argues that the true human universal is not a shared human nature, but rather this shared human condition. In other words, he thinks that there is no collective set of inherent traits that “define” human beings, besides the fact that each person necessarily has “to be in the world, to work in it, to live out his life in it among others, and, eventually, to die in it.” Existentialism, then, is a “ humanism ” in the sense that it starts from this universal human condition, but not in the sense that it believes human beings all share an inherent nature or value.

Existence, Essence and the Human Condition ThemeTracker

Existence, Essence and the Human Condition Quotes in Existentialism Is a Humanism

Many will be surprised by what l have to say here about humanism. We shall attempt to discover in what sense we understand it. In any case, let us begin by saying that what we mean by “existentialism” is a doctrine that makes human life possible and also affirms that every truth and every action imply an environment and a human subjectivity.

When God creates he knows exactly what he is creating. The concept of man, in the mind of God, is comparable to the concept of the paper knife in the mind of the manufacturer: God produces man following certain techniques and a conception, just as the craftsman, following a definition and a technique, produces a paper knife. Thus each individual man is the realization of a certain concept within this divine intelligence.

What do we mean here by “existence precedes essence”? We mean that man first exists: he materializes in the world, encounters himself, and only afterward defines himself. If man as existentialists conceive of him cannot be defined, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later and then he will be what he makes of himself.

Man is indeed a project that has a subjective existence, rather unlike that of a patch of moss, a spreading fungus, or a cauliflower. Prior to that projection of the self, nothing exists, not even in divine intelligence, and man shall attain existence only when he is what he projects himself to be—not what he would like to be.

Man is condemned to be free: condemned, because he did not create himself, yet nonetheless free, because once cast into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

People would prefer to be born a coward or be born a hero.

Contrary to the philosophy of Descartes, or of Kant, when we say “I think,” we each attain ourselves in the presence of the other, and we are just as certain of the other as we are of ourselves. Therefore, the man who becomes aware of himself directly in the cogito also perceives all others, and he does so as the condition of his own existence. He realizes that he cannot be anything (in the sense in which we say someone is spiritual, or cruel, or jealous) unless others acknowledge him as such.

Historical situations vary; a man may be born a slave in a pagan society or a feudal lord or a member of the proletariat. What never varies is the necessity for him to be in the world, to work in it, to live out his life in it among others, and, eventually, to die in it. These limitations are neither subjective nor objective; rather they have an objective as well as a subjective dimension: objective, because they affect everyone and are evident everywhere; subjective because they are experienced and are meaningless if man does not experience them—that is to say, if man does not freely determine himself and his existence in relation to them. And, as diverse as man’s projects may be, at least none of them seem wholly foreign to me since each presents itself as an attempt to surpass such limitations, to postpone, deny, or come to terms with them.

There is another meaning to the word “humanism.” It is basically this: man is always outside of himself, and it is in projecting and losing himself beyond himself that man is realized; and, on the other hand, it is in pursuing transcendent goals that he is able to exist. Since man is this transcendence, and grasps objects only in relation to such transcendence, he is himself the core and focus of this transcendence. The only universe that exists is the human one—the universe of human subjectivity.

Gardens : an essay on the human condition

Humans have long turned to gardens—both real and imaginary—for sanctuary from the frenzy and tumult that surrounds them. Those gardens may be as far away from everyday reality as Gilgamesh’s garden of the gods or as near as our own backyard, but in their very conception and the marks they bear of human care and cultivation, gardens stand as restorative, nourishing, necessary havens.

With Gardens , Robert Pogue Harrison graces readers with a thoughtful, wide-ranging examination of the many ways gardens evoke the human condition. Moving from from the gardens of ancient philosophers to the gardens of homeless people in contemporary New York, he shows how, again and again, the garden has served as a check against the destruction and losses of history.  The ancients, explains Harrison, viewed gardens as both a model and a location for the laborious self-cultivation and self-improvement that are essential to serenity and enlightenment, an association that has continued throughout the ages. The Bible and Qur’an; Plato’s Academy and Epicurus’s Garden School; Zen rock and Islamic carpet gardens; Boccaccio, Rihaku, Capek, Cao Xueqin, Italo Calvino, Ariosto, Michel Tournier, and Hannah Arendt—all come into play as this work explores the ways in which the concept and reality of the garden has informed human thinking about mortality, order, and power.

Alive with the echoes and arguments of Western thought, Gardens is a fitting continuation of the intellectual journeys of Harrison’s earlier classics, Forests and The Dominion of the Dead . Voltaire famously urged us to cultivate our gardens; with this compelling volume, Robert Pogue Harrison reminds us of the nature of that responsibility—and its enduring importance to humanity.

"I find myself completely besotted by a new book titled Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition , by Robert Pogue Harrison. The author . . . is one of the very best cultural critics at work today. He is a man of deep learning, immense generosity of spirit, passionate curiosity and manifold rhetorical gifts."—Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune

"This book is about gardens as a metaphor for the human condition. . . . Harrison draws freely and with brilliance from 5,000 years of Western literature and criticism, including works on philosophy and garden history. . . . He is a careful as well as an inspiring scholar."—Tom Turner, Times Higher Education

"When I was a student, my Cambridge supervisor said, in the Olympian tone characteristic of his kind, that the only living literary critics for whom he would sell his shirt were William Empson and G. Wilson Knight.  Having spent the subsequent 30 years in the febrile world of academic Lit. Crit. . . . I’m not sure that I’d sell my shirt for any living critic.  But if there had to be one, it would unquestionably be Robert Pogue Harrison, whose study Forests: The Shadow of Civilization , published in 1992, has the true quality of literature, not of criticism—it stays with you, like an amiable ghost, long after you read it.

“Though more modest in scope, this new book is similarly destined to become a classic. It has two principal heroes: the ancient philosopher Epicurus . . . and the wonderfully witty Czech writer Karel Capek, apropos of whom it is remarked that, whereas most people believe gardening to be a subset of life, ‘gardeners, including Capek, understand that life is a subset of gardening.’”—Jonathan Bate, The Spectator

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Anthony domestico, otherwise known as the human condition: selected essays and reviews, by geoff dyer, reviewed by anthony domestico.

At one point in his new collection of essays, Geoff Dyer quotes Auden’s longing for “a form that’s large enough to swim in.” In the past, Dyer’s work has stretched form to the breaking point, mixing fiction with non-fiction, history with autobiography. At times, this tendency to explode generic divisions has bordered on self-parody. In Out of Sheer Rage (1997), Dyer wrote a book about not writing a book about D. H. Lawrence: the end result was a brilliant work of literary criticism. Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It , a 2003 collection of travel essays with lots of sex and lots of drugs, was perhaps fictionalized, perhaps not. As Dyer gnomically wrote in the introduction, “Everything in this book really happened, but some of the things that happened only happened in my head.”

Dyer’s newest book, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition , is a collection of occasional pieces, and this form proves capacious enough even for Dyer. The book offers an eclectic mix of subjects and styles. We get essays on Rebecca West and the 2004 Olympics, meditations on war photography and a disappointingly tame night spent with the members of Def Leppard. Some of the pieces, especially the book reviews, are tight in construction, others meander, following the author’s thoughts wherever they lead. All, however, offer original, surprising writing. Otherwise Known as the Human Condition is perhaps the purest distillation of Dyer’s personality yet: easily distracted, intensely self-reflexive, and ferociously clever.

While Dyer’s generic pyrotechnics draw the most critical attention, it is his distinctive voice that makes him such a pleasure to read. On the inherent sexiness of hotels, Dyer writes, “A hotel room is horny because it is clean: the sheets are clean, the toilets are clean, everything is clean, and this cleanliness is a flagrant inducement to—what else?—filthiness.” All of Dyer’s stylistic gifts are on display here: the easy humor, the precise diction, the light rhythm, the balancing of the tawdry with the philosophical, or, more accurately, the mining of the tawdry for the philosophical. His prose reads like a cross between Keith Richards and George Orwell: slangy yet clear, somehow both druggy and lucid.

Dyer’s typical method is to circle around his subject, hovering over its surface and approaching it from many different angles. He has a mind particularly well suited to critical introductions, which call for the telling detail or quotation rather than careful exegesis, and Otherwise Known as the Human Condition contains wonderful introductions to Rebecca West, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others.

If there is a thread to be found in the labyrinth of this collection, it is an intense interest in Geoff Dyer—his likes, his dislikes, his obsessions, his neuroses. The final section of the book, entitled “Personals,” contains several essays on Dyer’s past and present misadventures. At times he’s bemused, as when relating the experience of being fired from his first job (“Get in late, knock off early, and do fuck-all in the interval except steal stationery: that’s my attitude to work”). Elsewhere, Dyer reveals a sincere, though never sentimental, side, especially when remembering his working-class childhood.

Even when writing about other artists, Dyer seems to be really writing about himself. In an introduction to Rebecca West’s hard-to-classify masterpiece, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon , Dyer complains, “Palpably inferior works—novels—sit far more securely on the literary syllabus than an awkward tome whose identifying quality is a refusal to fit.” In a review of Lorrie Moore, he could be describing his own discomfort with “narrative locomotion”: “Moore advances her story while appearing to let it drift sideways, roll backwards, or even, at times, to stall.”

Dyer acknowledges, and indeed celebrates, the ways in which all these pieces lead back to himself. In the collection’s title essay, he begins to describe the food at a New York City café, only to pull back: “I don’t intend dwelling on these sandwiches because what’s important in this parable is me and my state of mind, otherwise known as the human condition.” The tone is typical of Dyer’s writing, as his ironic, self-mocking stance masks what is, for him, a deep truth: the infinite interest of the mind at play.

One is tempted to say that the distractable, proudly solipsistic Dyer is the ideal writer for the Google generation. He prefers to call himself a “late-twentieth-early-twenty-first-century man of letters.” Though I’m hesitant to compare him to any other writer, he reminds me of a modern-day, pot-smoking Montaigne. Like Montaigne, Dyer writes on an incredible range of subjects, but he always ends up where he started: carefully mapping the encounters between an endlessly fascinating world and the self-conscious mind that perceives it.

Published on May 16, 2013

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The Human Condition

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

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Prologue-Part 1

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Discussion Questions

What does Arendt mean by “the human condition?” How is it different from the notion of “human nature?”

Why, according to Arendt’s analysis in Chapter 2, is the vita contemplativa opposed to the vita activa in the Western philosophical tradition?

What function does the public realm serve for Arendt? What about the private sphere? Does she think that these two domains of human activity are irreconcilable?

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Science Fiction in Literature and the Human Condition Essay

According to Theodore Strugeon, “a science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content.” Since the publication of Darwin’s science of evolution, mankind has been attempting to solve one of the major problems of our age – where will this sort of evolution lead the human race and what implications does this have regarding the significance of our ideas and essential humanity.

The ideas and questions this science introduced thus helped give rise to the literary genre of science fiction, in which answers to these questions were sought. As the introduction of science brings about new capabilities for extended human understanding, both H.G. Wells and Arthur C. Clarke explore the darker side of evolutionary thought and where humans are heading both in terms of human society as well as in individual development.

In both stories, human society is presumed to have developed to a relatively utopian state at some point. This is only speculated upon in Wells’ story as the Time Traveler wanders through the green countryside of the future. Deducing what must have happened in the intervening years of his time travel jump from the evidence in front of him, the traveler describes how things must have been: “The ideal of preventative medicine was attained. Diseases had been stamped out … I saw mankind housed in splendid shelters, gloriously clothed, and as yet I had found them engaged in no toil. There were no signs of struggle” (Wells 49).

The society that develops following the interference of the Overlords in Clarke’s story help to establish something very similar to the society described by Wells’ traveler at an earlier point in its development: “Production had become largely automatic: the robot factories poured forth consumer goods in such unending streams that all the ordinary necessities of life were virtually free. Men worked for the sake of luxuries they desired: or they did not work at all” (Clarke 73). In both cases, the developments brought about as a result of science enabled mankind to turn his attentions to the fulfillment of desire.

Although utopia had been reached in both tales, this did not usher in the sort of explosion of ideas and culture that characterized the Renaissance period of earlier times. Instead, it led to the destruction of these elements of human existence. In Wells’ story, this is epitomized in the relatively bestial qualities of the inhabitants of his future world, the Eloi and the Morlocks. The traveler includes these ideas in his ruminations of what had led the human population to such a mindless state of existence.

“Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active, strong and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall; conditions under which the active, strong and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall … Under the new conditions of perfect comfort and security, that restless energy, that with us is strength, would become weakness” (Wells 49-50). Art and culture have completely disappeared as the last ditch efforts of active minds to find meaning in a world now engineered for the perfect and effortless sustenance for future generations. This is exactly the case found in Clarke’s story as well, although found at an earlier stage.

As George and Jean Greggson consider moving to a specific isolated colony, the director explains the reason for its establishment: “The world’s now placid, featureless and culturally dead: nothing really new has been created since the Overlords came. The reason’s obvious. There’s nothing left to struggle for, and there are too many distractions and entertainments” (Clarke 149-150). With the destruction of any need for creative thought and competitive energy, the purpose of civilization takes a fundamental turn.

The two authors take a dramatically different although equally distressing approach to the end of mankind. This is reflected in a complete loss of individuality within the societies discovered by the ‘time travelers’ of both stories. Wells’ character discovers that the Eloi are nearly completely mindless in their blissful daytime activities while the Morlocks are equally mindless in their voracious appetite and only slightly more clever thinking. “After all, they were less human and more remote than our cannibal ancestors of three or four thousand years ago. And the intelligence that would have made this state of things a torment had gone. Why should I trouble myself? These Eloi were mere fatted cattle, which the ant-like Morlocks preserved and preyed upon – probably saw to the breeding of” (Wells 74-75).

The future humans of both stories transition into something no longer recognizably human, having lost the quality of mind that we consider makes us unique among the animals, but the humans of Clarke’s story are moving on to something too unknown to be judged. As Jan describes the last moments of Earth, he tells the Overlords through radio transmission that the mindless-seeming children of the last human generation have made an evolutionary jump beyond the bounds of matter to become a part of something larger than even the Overlords: “they’re on their way at last, to become part of the Overmind. Their probation is ended: they’re leaving the last remnants of matter behind” (Clarke 227).

Through both stories, it is only through the intervention of science that these fundamental questions regarding the human condition become answerable questions within these stories. By circumnavigating the time element, either through a time machine or through the elaborate end game of Jan Rodricks, science is able to give mankind an idea of what life would be like should mechanics manage to remove all elements of strife to introduce utopia.

Rather than leading to the type of Golden Age often anticipated, both stories illustrate how this final Golden Age was something more in the nature of a final death throe. While Wells indicates this inevitable decline and loss of everything human is irrefutable and irrevocable, Clarke offers hope in the possibility of the existence of an entirely different sort of existence. This existence is, admittedly, no more concerned with the concept of a once-human race or their various developments on Earth than is the obliterated planet of Wells’ creation, but there is a hope of the human race having contributed something lasting to the universal order.

Works Cited

Clarke, Arthur C. Childhood’s End. New York: Ballantine Books, 1953.

Wells, H. G. The Time Machine: The War of the Worlds. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, 1968.

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IvyPanda. (2021, October 31). Science Fiction in Literature and the Human Condition. https://ivypanda.com/essays/science-fiction-in-literature-and-the-human-condition/

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IvyPanda . 2021. "Science Fiction in Literature and the Human Condition." October 31, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/science-fiction-in-literature-and-the-human-condition/.

1. IvyPanda . "Science Fiction in Literature and the Human Condition." October 31, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/science-fiction-in-literature-and-the-human-condition/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Science Fiction in Literature and the Human Condition." October 31, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/science-fiction-in-literature-and-the-human-condition/.

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Stories of Our Lives and 'The Human Condition'

Being human confers on us dramatic life stories, both joyful and painful..

Posted October 3, 2021 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

• "The human condition" is used ironically to refer to the state of being a human, with both the wondrous and the woeful feelings we experience.
• We are the only species that can describe in words and works of art our perceptions, thoughts, and feelings to ourselves and to others.
• We all have diverse and unique life stories, but each one of them depicts times love and loss, communality and loneliness, joy and sadness.

The phrase "the human condition" has always fascinated me.

It was coined in 1958 by the political thinker Hanna Arendt, and summarizes for me the complexities, and both the rewarding and difficult experiences of being a human being.

Of all earthly creatures, only we humans can describe through words our sensed perceptions, thoughts and feelings, and convey the touching stories of our lives. Our cognitive and verbal powers enable us to consciously experience, exult, and endure.

Our life stories are unique and diverse yet they all contain compelling narratives of drama and romance, pain and disappointment, joys and achievements.

There are oft-asked questions as to whether the “human condition” is a serious affliction with which we cope or endure, or conversely, whether it is a privilege and blessing for which we should be grateful and enjoy? The answer is, of course, “Both.”

We have wide ranges of emotions at different times, from love to hate, camaraderie to rancor, generosity to selfishness, and celebration to sadness.

We can keep our personal feelings and thoughts private, ‘locked’ in our private cerebral 'vaults,' or we can choose to share (or not) our stories with chosen confidantes.

As a psychiatrist I am interested in diagnoses and treatments, but I’m particularly moved by the varied stories of peoples’ lives. My career has allowed me the privilege of learning about others’ fears, loves, hopes, and meaningful relationships.

I was motivated to work with and help people with psychological and emotional challenges. I was also captivated by the mysterious workings of the human mind (my own included), the places it takes one, the emotions it stirs, and the dreams it produces. It is an intellectually challenging area of study, enabling clinical work, education , research, and writing.

Personal experiences also influenced my career choice: I had a brother born with severe autism , my mother had recurrent depressions, a close classmate had committed suicide , and to be sure, I harbored my own self-doubts and anxieties.

I first became interested in life stories from my parents whose lives were like multicolored tapestries, dark narratives of early poverty, antisemitism, immigration, and strife, as well as later colorful tales of family, accomplishments, and generativity.

I’ve thus been fortunate to ‘accompany’ people on parts of their journeys, which are always moving stories. I am always struck by the uniqueness of life stories, the diverse personalities we inhabit, the dramas and challenges we face, and the loves and joys we experience. Our brief life journeys are unpredictable, complex, and moving.

We humans are a social species, and in these roiling times of conflicts, viruses, and uncertainties abounding in our lives, we need each other more than ever. An important paradox (and sad tragedy) is that at the very time in human existence when we are “hyperconnected” by the internet and social media , we frequently lead intensely private and even lonely lives. The sad fact is we are now less emotionally connected, more alienated, even estranged from each other.

We are a social species, and we thrive on “social cohesion,” our relationships with others. (This is admittedly more difficult when the pandemic necessitates “social distancing.”) Our mutual sharing of feelings and ideas are vital to our well-being, but we are too often isolated and disconnected that we have little meaningful time to spend with each other. We are so preoccupied that we haven’t the time or the interest to listen and really hear each other.

The human condition is complex: We can live in atmospheres of isolation, camaraderie, or enmity. We can experience mutual cooperation , tolerance, and love, or we can succumb to the negative parts of our natures, like intolerance, aggression , racism , and hatred. We can live our lives in an avoidance bubble, in relative solitude and private discordance, or we can live in social atmospheres of communality and harmony.

Our human condition is a blessing that can bring psychological, social, and spiritual sustenance and meaning to our lives. But that same ‘condition’ can at times bring us major distress.

The ‘condition’ (painful) part of the human condition, however, is existential, and not a psychiatric disorder that necessitates treatment. Medication and psychotherapy are not the answers to the challenging aspects of the human condition.

What humanity needs for the prevention and mitigation of the demons in our nature are more education, egalitarianism, and exposure to the better angels in our midst and our souls.

It will take commitment and hard cooperative work to engender our human resilience so that we maximize our strengths and overcome our intrinsic human quandaries.

“The human condition” can be our salvation or our curse. I yearn for when it is less a metaphor for a psychological ‘mixed bag’ of both the supportive and the difficult parts of being human, and more a description of how we have transcended our harmful frailties and faults. We have shown that we can evolve to better versions of ourselves.

In spite of human antipathies and conflicts, I believe we can achieve a mutually humane and benevolent existence, and leave a positive emotional footprint. The very nature of our life stories depends on how we live, work and play together, or how we fail to do so.

Saul Levine M.D. , is a professor emeritus at the University of California at San Diego.

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Hello beautiful.

Twin Poets Al Mills and Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha perform “Hello Beautiful”

Hello beautiful Who you looking at like that? I don't know why you keep looking at me like that. Girl, I don't know why You don't Let the corners of your mouth curl and point to the sky And who are you looking at you with those old ugly eyes Trying to tell me those little ugly lies About how we not pretty enough How our hair is too short and how our features are too strong and rough I swear you need to get your eyes checked Because here you go again with that same old mess About how she look better and how you like her hair But don't you think they’re saying the same thing when they look in the mirror

Blah blah blah, I heard it all before You don't like our eyes, our nose, our cheekbones and your lips for sure And don't even get me started on my pimples and blackheads I wish mom would just get me some Proactive like the other kids Then my skin would look better and everyone would tell me how cute I am Snap out of it, when did hating our gifts become a part of the plan?

You think that you want to be like her But she is just doing the same thing she saw somebody else do The flyest thing of all is just you being you So just smile because you can't be number two Because there is only one you So let's make a pact and agree That when you look in the mirror from now on You will be amazed at all the beauty you see When you look at me: I want you to see My face as a priceless jewel A full sunflower, peach blossom in bloom

I want you to see all the marks of beauty that make me unique Gaze at my features stroll your fingers down my cheek See the rainbow that are my eyebrows, right above the roses that our my eyes And in the middle of my coronation and lily cheeks is my lotus flower for a nose While my mouth is as beautiful as jasmine and ginger See my smile, notice I no longer have 2 lips I have tulips, orchids and daises I know to see me this way for the first time is amazing

But we’re in this together: me and you And if you forever see the beauty in me, I'll forever show the beauty in you When you look at me I want you to smile and want to take a selfie So when you greet me tomorrow morning and say hello beautiful I won't be surprised I'll just know you now you see the beautiful flower you are on the inside

From Our Work, Our Words… Poems on the pavement (Meja Books, 2015) Copyright © 2015 by Twin Poets. Used with permission of the Twin Poets  Al Mills and Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha .

Because it looked hotter that way

Copyright © 2014 by Camille Dungy. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-A-Day on January 14, 2014. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive .

Essay on Reentry

At two a.m., without enough spirits spilling into my liver to know  to keep my mouth shut, my youngest learned of years I spent inside a box: a spell, a kind of incantation I was under; not whisky, but History: I robbed a man. This, months before he would drop bucket after bucket on opposing players, the entire bedraggled bunch five & six & he leaping as if every lay-up erases something. That’s how I saw it, my screaming-coaching-sweating presence recompense for the pen. My father has never seen me play ball is part of this. My oldest knew, told of my crimes by a stranger. Tell me we aren’t running towards failure is what I want to ask my sons, but it is two in the a.m. The oldest has gone off to dream in the comfort of his room, the youngest despite him seeming more lucid than me, just reflects cartoons back from his eyes. So when he tells me, Daddy it’s okay, I know what’s happening is some straggling angel, lost from his pack finding a way to fulfill his duty, lending words to this kid who crawls into my arms, wanting, more than stories of my prison, the sleep that he fought while I held court at a bar with men who knew that when the drinking was done, the drinking wouldn’t make the stories we brought home any easier to tell.

From Felon . Copyright © 2019 by Reginald Dwayne Betts. Used by permission of the author.

This Has Always Been Our Active Shooter Drill

Copyright © 2018 by Jason Reynolds. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 31, 2018, by the Academy of American Poets.

on the days the dark is vanta vicious enough to swallow whole every holy thing like my mother and the stigmata she bleeds from a totem of raising black

on the days the cold is cold as all get out but there’s no place to get in when even breath is blade and hurts to think of thinking of breathing let alone laughing

on the days I feel frayed and ‘fraid ripped and torn from the lot plucked from family and ‘nem and even myself sometimes my name is the name of a stranger

my face still the face in the hole of a hoodie just snatched out my own world never mine and dragged and scraped across the rough textured parts of this being alive thing

i’m reminded of what it feels like to have my head alight to have it catch fire and blaze-lick high above me and all this

i’m reminded to return to the truth that oh yeah me my little self a match my little self a cardboard cutout might could burn this whole so-called kingdom down

Copyright © 2020 by Jason Reynolds. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 28, 2020 by the Academy of American Poets.

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The Human Condition (Definition + Explanation)

There are over 7.5 billion people alive today. We live different lifestyles, have different opinions, and follow different rules in our different societies. But there are things that remain true for all 7.5+ billion people around the world. We are all born. We all grow. We all die.

Being human means we love, struggle, hope, and sometimes feel lost. We ask big questions like "Why are we here?" and "What's our purpose?" Throughout history, artists, writers, and thinkers have tried to explore and understand these feelings and questions.

In this article, we'll journey through the maze of the human experience, touching on emotions, relationships, dreams, and more. It's like a mirror reflecting what it means to be us. So, are you ready to dive deep and explore the essence of being human? Let's get started!

What Is The Human Condition?

The concept of the human condition refers to the shared experiences, emotions, and challenges that are common to all human beings, regardless of culture, race, or background. It encompasses both the positive and negative aspects of human existence, including joy, love, and fulfillment, as well as suffering, pain, and mortality.

Human condition is often confused with human nature, but human nature is just one part of the human condition. The term “human nature” refers to the traits, behaviors, and other characteristics that are natural to human beings.

Human condition is much larger than just human nature. It includes the characteristics natural to all humans, but also looks at the events that all humans go through and the moral conflicts that they face. It looks at what we do with our natural characteristics and how we use them to shape the world around us.

You may have a very different life from someone across the world. But you both show love and affection toward others. You both experience emotions like fear, happiness, or grief. While you may not agree with someone’s political views or behavior, when you look closely at the motives behind your actions, you may find that you hold similar values or want to protect similar things.

Where do these feelings come from? Why are we so similar at our core, yet so different on the surface? What is the point of being born, living, accomplishing things, making an impact, only to die?

These are big questions. You don’t have a definite answer. I don’t have a definite answer. The smartest people in the world don’t have definite answers. But contemplating these questions has been central to psychology, philosophy, art, literature , and religion. One might say that thinking about the human condition is part of the human condition.

Effect of Human Condition

It’s hard to define what the human condition is without picking specific beliefs about why humans are on this Earth. Beliefs about the human condition may influence a person’s personality or behavior. A religion’s views on the human condition, for example, may be the basis for the rules a follower of that religion lives by. If a person believes there is a higher power behind the human condition, they may be inclined to follow the teachings of that higher power.

The human condition influences psychology and what psychologists have to say about the human condition. Like religion, art, or science, psychology does not provide one answer that explains the human condition.

The Human Condition In Psychology

What drives behavior?

For some psychologists, the answer lies in human nature. Our genes influence the traits that we develop and the behaviors we display later in life.

For others, the answer can be found in the way that we are nurtured. The environment we grow up in influences the person that we become. Trauma, comfort, and relationships all play a part in how we see the world and how we see our place in it.

Nature vs. nurture is one of the great debates in psychology. All of these debates can be traced back to the human condition:

• The mind vs. body debate
• Free will vs. determinism
• Holism vs. reductionism

The list goes on and on. These debates, and our questions about the human condition, work in a cycle. We can only determine that the mind and body are separate by studying the human condition. By choosing a side of this debate, we say a lot about the human condition.

These debates are found within many approaches to psychology. These different approaches, including behaviorism or humanistic psychology, are rooted in theories about the human condition. Some of these approaches have become “outdated” and replaced with other approaches. What does this say about psychology’s view of the human condition?

Humanistic Psychology and the Human Condition

Psychology underwent a major shift, starting in the 1940s. In 1943, Abraham Maslow created a hierarchy of needs that speaks to the human condition. He believed that once our basic needs (including water, food, love, and safety) are achieved, humans can start to self-actualize.

The process of self-actualization includes personal development, growth, and fulfilling one’s true potential. While a self-actualized person is independent and accepts themselves, they may turn their focus to larger problems and begin to help others. A self-actualized person may seek the answers about the human condition, with the ability to get closer to the answers because they are fulfilled in other capacities.

This is a very positive position to be in, and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs gives us a road map to get there. It kickstarted the popularity of humanistic psychology, a so-called “third-wave” of psychology that follows the more pessimistic school so behaviorism and psychoanalysis.

Positive Psychology

Humanistic psychology is often compared to positive psychology. These two schools of thought have similar goals and views. They are both a response to behaviorism and psychoanalysis. The biggest difference between these two approaches is how they set out to study, test, and confirm their theories. While humanistic psychology relies on more qualitative data, positive psychology chooses the quantitative route.

Positive psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on the positive aspects of human experience, including happiness, well-being, and personal growth. In the context of the human condition, positive psychology offers a framework for understanding how we can cultivate positive emotions and experiences, even in the face of adversity and challenges.

One key concept in positive psychology is the idea of resilience, which refers to the ability to bounce back from adversity and to thrive in the face of challenges. Resilience is a key aspect of the human condition, as we all face difficulties and setbacks at various points in our lives. By cultivating resilience through practices like mindfulness, gratitude, and social support, we can better navigate the challenges that life presents us with.

Ways to Explore Humanity 

Psychologists, philosophers, and people have been seeking the answers to life’s biggest questions for centuries. Why not join them? Recognizing the importance of these questions is the first step to finding the answer. 

Educate Yourself 

People study the great philosophers to discover their thoughts on life and humanity. (Ancient Grecians had a lot of time on their hands to debate these things!) Whether it’s reading a book or attending a class on philosophy, education on the mind and humanity can give you a lot of basic information on what perspectives are out there. You might find that you agree with some philosophers. Or, you blend their perspectives together to form your own beliefs. At the very least, you’ll be able to sound very smart at parties when you discuss the world’s greatest minds!

Try New Things 

The answers to the world’s biggest questions are probably not found at home. (Or maybe they are!) If you are seeking a new perspective, try new things. Travel to a foreign country. Talk to someone that you wouldn’t normally talk to. Try to live your life in the shoes of a complete stranger for a day. The more you expose yourself to, the more you will see how other humans view the world. Every individual’s perspective is so limited. There are billions of people living complex, exciting, dramatic lives. No one will be able to understand every person on this Earth, but trying new things is the best way to understand more people. 

Write Out Your Experiences 

How do you make sense of the world? You can think about it. You can also write it down! Our minds process emotions differently when we write them on paper versus when we sit around and think about them. Write out your experiences like you’re writing a story. What does your story say about the human condition? 

Here are a few other ideas to explore humanity and experience the full human condition:

• Explore the role of culture in shaping the human condition. How do cultural beliefs and values shape our experiences and understanding of the world around us? How does culture influence our sense of identity, belonging, and purpose?
• Investigate the ways in which different individuals and groups experience the human condition differently. For example, how do experiences of race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status shape our understanding of the human condition? How do these experiences intersect and influence each other?
• Reflect on the role of emotions in the human condition. How do emotions like joy, love, fear, and sadness shape our experiences and understanding of the world? How do we cope with challenging emotions like grief and anxiety?
• Examine the quest for meaning and purpose in the human condition. How do we find meaning in our lives, and what gives our lives a sense of purpose and significance? How does this quest for meaning shape our experiences of happiness, fulfillment, and well-being?
• Consider the impact of technology on the human condition. How have advances in technology changed our experiences of the world and each other? How do we navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by technology in the context of the human condition?

Quotes About the Human Condition

What do the world’s greatest psychologists, philosophers, and authors have to say about humanity? Let’s find out! 

Quotes About Human Nature 

“Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” -Mahatma Gandhi

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” -Napoleon Hill

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.” -Rosa Parks

“For every reason it’s not possible, there are hundreds of people who have faced the same circumstances and succeeded.” -Jack Canfield

“To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.” -Thomas Paine

“In my view, the best of humanity is in our exercise of empathy and compassion. It's when we challenge ourselves to walk in the shoes of someone whose pain or plight might seem so different than yours that it's almost incomprehensible.” -Sarah McBride

Quotes About the Purpose of Humanity 

“The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.” -Leo Tolstoy

“Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved.” -D. H. Lawrence

“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” -Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written, in writing what deserves to be read, and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it.” -Pliny the Elder

“The cities, the roads, the countryside, the people I meet – they all begin to blur. I tell myself I am searching for something. But more and more, it feels like I am wandering, waiting for something to happen to me, something that will change everything, something that my whole life has been leading up to.” -Khaled Hosseini

“Life is difficult. Not just for me or other ALS patients. Life is difficult for everyone. Finding ways to make life meaningful and purposeful and rewarding, doing the activities that you love and spending time with the people that you love – I think that’s the meaning of this human experience.” -Steve Gleason

Books About The Human Condition

As P.T. Barnum once said, “Literature is one of the most interesting and significant expressions of humanity.” Plenty of books have been written about what it means to be a human and how to carry forth on our journeys. These are just a few favorites. Enjoy them when you’re in a philosophical mood.

“The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho 

“​​Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn

“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari

“Man's Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl

“Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert M. Pirsig

“The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig 

“Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman

“And the Mountains Echoed” by Khaled Hosseini 

Overwhelmed By These Questions? Reach Out to a Professional

The main schools of thought in psychology today have a more optimistic focus. But not everyone has such positive views on the human condition and why we are on Earth. Thinking about the human condition and the nature of our existence can be overwhelming. We all experience conflicting feelings and anxiety over these topics. If this anxiety is becoming overwhelming, reach out to a professional. Today’s therapists and psychiatrists are trained to help navigate the conflicts of the human condition and put you on a path toward self-actualization.

Related posts:

• 40+ Famous Psychologists (Images + Biographies)
• Dream Interpreter & Dictionary (270+ Meanings)
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• The Emotion Wheel (9 Wheels + PDF + How To Use)
• Martin Seligman Biography - Contributions To Psychology

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Introduction

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• Published: August 2010
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The aim of the book is to present and defend a secular view of the human condition. This view is pluralist, not absolutist; rationalist, not relativist; fallibilist, not skeptical or dogmatic; realist, not optimist or pessimist; particular and concrete, not general and abstract. Its perspective is humanistic, neither religiously, nor scientifically oriented.

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