Quality of life philosophy II: what is a human being?
The human being is a complex matter and many believe that just trying to understand life and what it means to be human is a futile undertaking. We believe that we have to try to understand life and get a grip on the many faces of life, because it can be of great value to us to learn to recognize the fundamental principles of how life is lived to the fullest. Learning to recognize the good and evil forces of life helps us to make use of the good ones. To be human is to balance between hundreds of extremes. Sometimes we have to avoid these extremes, but at other times it seems we should pursue them, to better understand life. With our roots in medicine, we believe in the importance of love for better health. The secret of the heart is when reason and feelings meet and we become whole. Where reason is balanced perfectly by feelings and where mind and body come together in perfect unity, a whole new quality emerges, a quality that is neither feeling nor reason, but something deeper and more complete. In this paper, we outline only enough biology to clarify what the fundamental inner conflicts are about. The insight into these conflicts gives us the key to a great deal of the problems of life. To imagine pleasures greater than sensual pleasures seems impossible to most people. What could such a joy possibly be? But somewhere deep in life exists the finest sweetness, the greatest quality in life, the pure joy of being alive that emerges when we are fully present and life is in balance. This deep joy of life is what we call experiencing the meaning of life.
Ventegodt
Søren
S
The quality of Life Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark. ventegodt@livskvalitet.org
Andersen
Niels Jørgen
NJ
Kromann
Maximilian
M
Merrick
Joav
J
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000818:Animals; D001695:Biology; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D011788:Quality of Life; D012649:Self Concept