___k

"To be human is to act and to choose, but always in the light of knowlege and understanding."
~ Aristotle

In my abbreviated reading of early philosophy I've come across a few statements like this that are interesting to ponder yet not, in my opinion, valid statements in that I don't agree with the viewpoint - for this one specifically, it implies that that to be human may be to act and to choose. And yet it is not always in the light of knowledge and understanding that we act or choose! As the history of our race illustrates, often we act out of fear or ignorance...

Also, to define human as one that acts in the light of knowledge and understanding is a classification that could be made, yet it defies the classification by scientific standards and leans toward the intangible, non-scientific. Our classification as human comes from our physical characteristics, not our behavior; if animals were to be classified into species by behavior, some dogs would be cats.

Conversely, it might be said that ideally we would act with understanding and knowledge but, in fact as humans, we often do not which is to what I attribute so many of the evil in our world and in our history.

Is this the purpose of philosophy/philosophical questions? Merely for the sake of discussion? I enjoy using questions such as these to define my thinking and feelings on subjects. Anyone wanna go for a coffee?

[k]