Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[missdaredevil]

While a knowledge of wine, travel and the* human condition* are usually par for the course

What does that mean?

Thanks

[Harmony]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=human%20condition

Definition: the positive and negative aspects of existence as a human being, esp. the inevitable events such as birth, childhood, adolescence, love, sex, reproduction, aging, and death

[missdaredevil]

like the cornerstone of life?

Thanks

[Harmony]

Hi Miss D,

To me the human condition means the broad spectrum of the challenges humans must face as we go through life and our awareness of the possibilities and limitations inherent in our lives. Having a knowledge of the human condition often implies an attitude of tolerance, sensitivity and open-mindedness based on an awareness of the fact that no matter how different we may seem, all humans inevitably face many of the same things in their lives.

The longer you've lived the more likely it is that you've faced some of life's challenges. It's thought that this first-hand experience gives a person a certain degree of wisdom and a personal understanding of life's lessons. I think this is generally true, although there are certainly some people who never seem to learn no matter how long they live!

Harmony

PS Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

The human condition encompasses the totality of the experience of being human and living human lives. As mortal entities, there are a series of biologically determined events which are common to most human lives, and some which are inevitable for all. The ongoing way in which humans react to or cope with these events is the human condition. However, understanding the precise nature and scope of what is meant by the human condition is itself a philosophical problem.

The term is also used in a metaphysical sense, to describe the joy, terror and other feelings or emotions associated with being and existence. Humans, to an apparently superlative degree amongst all living things, are aware of the passage of time, can remember the past and imagine the future, and are intimately aware of their own mortality. Only human beings are known to ask themselves questions relating to the purpose of life beyond the base need for survival, or the nature of existence beyond that which is empirically apparent: What is the meaning of existence? Why was I born? Why am I here? Where will I go when I die? The human struggle to find answers to these questions � and the very fact that we can conceive them and ask them � is what defines the human condition in this sense of the term.