Philosophical Dialogues  XX

(This Dialogue is dedicated to the medical
student, my daughter, Nandi, who will be
celebrating her XXth Birthday on
 November 28, 1999)

 By   Franz J. T. Lee

Essence and Existence XX

25th November, 1999

THE CONCEPT OF THE HUMAN BEING

SCENE:  Zoological Gardens, Los Chorros de Milla.

(Coseino is studying his "ancestors", jailed in an iron cage, wondering if the modern homo sapiens sapiens encounters himself in a different situation. Out of his wildest dreams, he was awakened by a symphony of halos and hellos. Karl, Patricia, Mahatma and Indira approach him.)

Coseino: Hi! Students. What a lovely surprise.

Patricia: What a lovely warm Andean Sunday afternoon. Those poor guys in Canada, the United States and Europe must now be freezing their butts off! But, at least, they will enjoy a classical White Christmas. The only problem is that Father Christmas arrived a bit early this year. Perhaps, due to the "Millenniumania", also he had flight reservation problems. As far as I can observe, his sack does not seem to be quite so filled with season merchandise as has been the case yesteryear. Who knows? The global economic crisis probably also has affected his budget.

Coseino: I see Patricia, you are already affected by the holiday virus. Mahatma, do you also celebrate Christmas?

Mahatma: Well, as you know, I was not born in a Christian family. At any event, I don't see anything around, except us, to celebrate; and our "season" is weekly. I enjoy our gifts every Friday afternoon; the rest, the global carnival, does not really touch me.

(They approach the little cosy restaurant. With a beautiful view to the mountains, to snowcapped Pico Bolivar, to the waterfall and surrounding green panorama, they comfortably sit down, and order fresh, delicious, Chiguara coffee.)

Coseino: Well, well. There we are, early tourists.

Patricia: Of course, we are on our way. We came here to relax, to reflect, to tour our ways of thinking, to have some delicious chats about Nature  a n d  Society. How lucky we are, not only to have you as our guide, more so, that we encounter you here, to join us on our Ontic Voyage. This must have been fate, destiny, or did you receive a psi-message, a telepathic invitation from us? We really profoundly wished that you would be there to chat with us.

Coseino: My dear Patricia, there are MORE things, in Heaven a n d  on Earth, than are dreamt of, excelled, in our Science a n d  Philosophy!

Karl: Professor, you are really pretty fast. It seems to me, that the "spirit" of the Season has also affected you; within split seconds, you exist in the centre of the arena of ontic "advent-ures". Give us a few moments to warm up our cerebral engines. It is rather cool here between the majestic mountains.

(Nearby a lackadaisical lion roars, questions his fate. In reply,
a flabbergasted monkey hysterically screams.)

Coseino: It seems to me that maltreated Nature /a n d   perverted Society, encaged, domesticated as lions, apes and monkeys, accompany us on our perilous voyage, where only the law of the jungle, of the Illuminati, determines our Quo vadis.

Karl: In medias res, in a previous seminar, Patricia focused on the need to substitute new terms that express emancipatory concepts for the current commonly used terms that describe controlling concepts.

Coseino: Yes, I recall that.

Karl: I was pondering, hovering over this issue for days already, and I was considering a way to aid us in developing, nurturing and enriching our thinking and thoughts.

Patricia: As I know you, Karl, surely you discovered a method which you want to present to us for further consideration. Well, what is it?

Karl: Patricia, you surely know me very well. A simplified method that will help us accomplish this, includes the use of words and symbols. Divide a blank sheet of paper in half. Label the left column "Controlling" and the right column "Emancipatory."

In the "Controlling" column, write some terms that you associate with "control," such as racism, sexism, mind control, genetic manipulation, human being, democracy, world peace, instinct, marketing and commercialism.

Next to each term, draw your own symbol to illustrate that term. For example, a symbol of racism might be a smiling face divided into four quarters: black, tan, white and yellow, respectively. An "X" identifies the races to which you are not a member; so if you're white, an "X" would appear in the black, tan and yellow quarters. A symbol of mind control might be a head squeezed in a vise.

Indira: Most Interesting. And what do we write in the "Emancipatory" column?

Karl: There you write you own term and draw your own symbol that would substitute for the respective "Controlling" term. For example, a substitute symbol for no racism might be the smiling face without "X's," and a substitute symbol for no mind control might be a halo around a head, which connects the mind with the entire universe. I have excluded examples of emancipatory terms, as these require considerable development. It's easier to draw pictures than write words.

Coseino: Could "symbols" like the "Victory Sign", the "Cross Bones", the "Blue Angel" or the "Dying Swan" also help us?

Karl (very excited and inspired): Of course, highly individualized emancipatory symbols might be used such as the Blue Angel associated with the Archangel St. Michael who is to initiate the Apocalypse, as the symbol of renewal.

Mahatma: What about the apocalyptic revelations, how would we know the "meanings"?

Karl: A question related to the term and symbol would be of value in revealing deeper meanings such as "In the natural genetics of the cell, which is not manipulated by external agent, what or who instructs the codified information to perform its functions?" Codes, if left alone, would be a chaotic mess.

We could discuss our symbols and terms, which would make the process of development of emancipatory ideas relatively easy and fun.

(Meanwhile, Adam, Bill, William, Albert, Jeffrey, Jeanette and Martina are joining the open-door university. They sit down, at a table next door. After the "saludos", they join the discussion.)

Coseino: This is an "Illuminati Conspiracy"! Soon I will have my whole class present here. Please, do not tell me, that this was a "secret" plot to have an extra class. Students, daily you surprise me even more. And, very few things on this globe, can still surprise me at all.  Other students thank the Lord when at last a boring class is over.

So, what are we waiting for? Here in my briefcase, I have all the gadgets.
Do  a n d  Think  AND  Excel It Ourselves, Here  a n d  Now! 
 
No more Monopoly or Pandemonium games! The Fun, our Pandemonium
Game has just begun!

(All, with childlike fire, begin with the project, cutting papers, writing texts, producing symbols. Then the ontic chapter is ushered in. Some loitering university students approach. They stare at this academic "circus", and comment that the good ole days of the "University" are gone.How true! Only Nutty Students and Professors are ruling the floor. Little do they know, that this "circus crew" is nailing its "theses" to the door of the Botanical Gardens, that the "New Millennium" has already faded into oblivion, already long before it ever begun. In History, a New Renaissance,
Science  a n d  Philosophy  AND  Emancipation,
is just being ushered in.)

Coseino: Karl, you surely made our day. It was great fun. Let us order some MORE coffee. The results of our first "thinking game", we will discuss on another occasion. This was just the experimental stage. Later, Karl will surely come up with more suggestions, that is, to inform us, how to improve this innovative method, in order to reap savoury fruits, excellent food for thought.

As you have noticed, I had introduced, "smuggled" in, a specific topic into our "game", also its codes, questions and emancipatory answers. The theme is The Concept of the "Human Being" by Marx.

Patricia: Yes, Professor, we all noticed that. And I have a question. In defining, in identifying the "human being", what is the concrete "point of departure" of Marx?

Coseino: Marx's point of departure is "Beduerfnis", need. The interpretation of the "human being" begins with human need. Let me see, if our game improved my memory, I quote: in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx stated:

"Man is first of all a natural being. As a natural being
and a living natural being, he is endowed on the one
hand with natural powers, vital powers . . .;
these powers exist in him as aptitudes, instincts. On the
other hand, as an objective, natural, physical, sensitive
being, he is a suffering, dependent and limited being . . .,
that is, the objects of his instincts exist outside him,
independent of him, but are the objects of his need,
indispensable and essential for the realization and
confirmation of his substantial powers".

Mahatma: Bravo! Bravo! Professor! You are a walking "Marx and Engels' COLLECTED WORKS"! Karl, that method to improve thinking and memory surely performs wonders!

Coseino: Mahatma, please do not tease Karl. As time flies by, using that very same method, you will be quoting any sentence that Coseino ever said or wrote, just at the spur of the moment. Be patient for a while! Let us continue to activate dormant faculties of your brain.

As can be seen, Marx confirmed that the "human being" is a "living, natural being", which is endowed with "natural, vital powers". Scientifically completely correct and stringent! These "powers" exist in him, that is, they constitute his Existence.
Philosophically totally precise!

Martina: In our scientific and philosophic terminology, what exactly is Marx saying?

Coseino: He states that the Human Being is Cosmos (Nature)  a n d  that it exists as Einai (Society), Existence, in nuce, as Human Existence.

Furthermore, he only mentions "aptitudes and instincts";  these are not exactly synonyms for our understanding of "Intellect a n d  Reason", but at least they blaze the trail towards Thinking and Thought.

What Marx explains "on the other hand" is very confusing and jumbled together, mixing up natural and social traits, hence no further comments.

Bill: What are the "data", the "objects" of man's instincts? Of his "needs"?

Coseino: According to Marx, they "exist outside him", "independent of him". Well, where? In the objective external world, in Cosmos, in Nature.

Indira: What then is the Marxian definition of Man, of the Human Being?

Coseino: We are approximating the crux of the Marxian definition of Man, of the Human Being. These cosmic, natural resources are "the objects of his need, indispensable and essential for the realization and confirmation of his substantial powers".

Human evolution, human history, is identical with the living Human Being, with MAN, who exploits Nature to satisfy his primary human needs.

Indira: And, what then is the "first historical fact"?

Albert: Obviously, as far as I can see, the first historical fact is:
"The production of the means to satisfy these needs". The very satisfaction of human needs paves the way for the reproduction of more needs.

Adam: Hence, there is nothing "divine" or "divinely creative" about Man, about the Human Being. According to Marx, the human productive process is human activity, "menschliche Taetigkeit", to satisfy human needs: eating, drinking, clothing, sheltering, etc. It produces and reproduces his "powers".

William: Energy, Power, Karl would say: Mental Energy, I would say: Orgon, is of special significance here, especially when we speak about political power (domination, the State) and economic power (exploitation, Capital). Also, this human activity produces and develops the intellectual and artistic human abilities and capabilities.

Coseino: Hooking up with our last seminar, what do you think is, for Marx, the function, the purpose of "Human Activity", of Labour?

Mahatma: Of course, although I specialize in "Intellectual Labour" and "Property Rights", as a layman, I would say that for Marx, human activity is Labour; as a productive being, Man humanizes himself. Through Labour, in the production
process, Man humanizes Nature, while He, Man, naturalizes Himself!

Indira: Obviously, here we do not have a scientific, philosophic process, where Man (Society) humanizes Nature, and where Nature naturalizes Man (Society). Human Labour is unilaterally defined as Man socializing Nature, and as the same Man naturalizing Society, naturalizing himself.

Coseino: Is that Dialogics or Dialectics?

Indira: Here we encounter not a multifacetical dialogic, but a kind of one-sided pseudo-dialectic, which takes place within the framework of the Patria, which never transcends its formal-logical boundaries, which always preserves and conserves the ideological, superstructural status quo.

Jeffrey: I always underlined that the Human Being is the "Illuminati", the Ruling Class. How does Man, Big Brother, identify Himself?

Albert: By means of his creative activity, of Labour, the Human Being identifies itself, becomes an entity, an identity.

Indira: Does this mean that Man finds his Identity with Nature?

Jeanette: Well, according to Marx, -- by mastering an euphemism for exploiting Nature  -- Man realizes his identity with Nature, that is, he achieves free consciousness, he develops his own thinking.

Karl: But that is exactly what we have in mind!

Jeanette: Agreed, but, actually Marx argues that Man who is a Child of Mother Nature, can only become fully human, fully manly, by opposing Nature. Here, the macho, the masculine Man, becomes the Lord of the Universe, by opposing, mastering and exploiting feminine Mother Nature, and all this is called Labour, Human Labour!

Adam: I am amazed! Not only am I chained to Christian religion, but look: How deep patriarchal ideology is rooted even in Marxism!

Coseino: And, from bad to worse, embodied in a fundamental concept of Marxism, Labour, on which the whole edifice of Marxian Theory and Praxis stands and falls!

Mahatma (poetically inspired): This aurora of "human consciousness", we would say Human Existence, cannot be separated from the dawn of the "human being" itself, with its "struggle against Nature"; later the "class struggle" will be added.

Patricia: (calming Mahatma down) Now, please get back to the discussion, I know that you enjoy the picturesque panorama here. Marx argues, that the consciousness about the struggle against Nature, being aware of exploiting Nature, gives Man the powers, the conditions, for his self-realization, for the fulfilment of the whole Human Being.

Adam: Oh My God! What a natural disaster! What a human "Crown of Creation", what a "Highest Blossom of Nature"! And, how does Marx explain this cruel ecocide?

Jeffrey: What does the "Human Being" discover?

Coseino: Let me test my memory again! I quote:

"All that is called history is nothing else
than the process of creating man through
human labour, the becoming of nature for man.
Man has thus evident and irrefutable proof
of his own creation by himself...."

Karl (intervenes, continuing the quotation): ... for man,
man is the supreme being."

Coseino: Now I must say: Bravo! Bravo! Karl! You deserve your name!

Now we know, who is Man, who is the Human Being! For the dominant ruling classes, they themselves are "Man"; for them, for Man, Man is God, Man is the Supreme Being. Thus, they need not believe in any God, they are Gods themselves, Man is God Himself! If Modern Science wants to "find God", it would be the most simple investigation that was ever performed on this planet.

Jeanette: At present I am doing a paper on Epistemology and Method. It surely gives me headaches. However, in the above sense, Marx was very clear about Religion and God; he had a very famous tutor: Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach.

Karl: But what is the relevance of all this to our modern society?

Coseino: Across the historical process, no member of the "wretched of the earth", -- except, of course, Man, the "Human Being", --  had acquired the fulfilment of his labour dreams, of his human needs. The few members of the species homo sapiens sapiens had enjoyed -- and are still enjoying -- heaven on earth, but this is not what Marx understood by human emancipation.

Martina: Because it was included in our "Pandemonium Game" before, I would like to ask the following question: What did Marx really understand by the concept "emancipation"? What did our "Game" reveal?

Karl: As far as I could judge, studying the results of our "game" before, Marx himself, living in a capitalist society, came to the conclusion, that Man is not really free. Adopting the concept of alienation of Hegel and Feuerbach, Marx was convinced, that modern Man is estranged, that he is not at home in his earthly labouring world. During our game before, on our emancipation paper, I read the following quotation of Marx: "Man is made alien to man."

Martina: But, according to Marx, Labour cannot be blamed; it is sacred, it is human.

Karl: True. According to Marx, Labour was alienated across the ages. His central problem is alienated Labour. Urgently Labour must be disalienated!

Bill: But, how and why did Labour become alienated, and consequently, why is Man an alienated Being, an alienated Human Being?

Coseino: Let me check: Sufficient Memory Available. Okay, then I quote again. The Encyclopædia Britannica gives us an excellent summary of Marx's views in The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 :

"In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts the alienation of labour is seen to spring from the fact that the more the worker produces the less he has to consume, and the more values he creates the more he devalues himself, because his product and his labour are estranged from him. The life of the worker depends on things that he has created but that are not his, so that, instead of finding his rightful existence through his labour, he loses it in this world of things that are external to him: no work, no pay. Under these conditions, labour denies the fullness of concrete man."

"The generic being (Gattungswesen) of man, nature as well as his intellectual faculties, is transformed into a being which is alien to him, into a means of his individual existence. ... Nature, his body, his spiritual essence become alien to him: 'Man is made alien to man.' When carried to its highest stage of development, private property becomes 'the product of alienated labour . . . the means by which labour alienates itself (and) the realization of this alienation.' It is also at the same time 'the tangible material expression of alienated human life'. "

In brief, Marx saw alienated labour as the historic result of the exploitation and domination of Man by Man, of market production, of the division of labour into manual and intellectual labour, of the division of society into antagonistic classes, mainly the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica continues with the Marxian explanation, and I quote:

"As producers in society, men create goods only by their labour. These goods are exchangeable. Their value is the average amount of social labour spent to produce them. The alienation of the worker takes on its full dimension in that system of market production, in which part of the value of the goods produced by the worker is taken away from him and transformed into surplus value, which the capitalist privately appropriates. Market production also intensifies the alienation of labour by encouraging specialization, piecework, and the setting up of large enterprises. Thus, the labour power of the worker is used along with that of others in a combination whose significance he is ignorant of, both individually and socially. In thus losing their quality as human products, the products of labour become fetishes, that is, alien and oppressive realities to which both the man who possesses them privately and the man who is deprived of them submit themselves. In the market economy, this submission to things is obscured by the fact that the exchange of goods is expressed in money."

This economic alienation causes political, social and human alienation; this estrangement results in distorted human relations. The alienated economic base distorts the ideological superstructure, thus creating perverted religious, metaphysical,
philosophical, legal, political and moral ideas and notions. But let Marx himself explain the alienation and disalienation process. I quote again:

                "The act of making
                  representations, of thinking,
                  the spiritual intercourse of
                  men, seem to be the
                  direct emanation of their
                  material relations."

Patricia (totally surprised by all the quotations): Professor, Stop! This is too much! Are you a walking Encyclopaedia Britannica?

Coseino (with a mephistophelic smile): Please wait, my dear. I'm not yet through. I learned a lot about memorizing from the students in my other university classes. Let me continue:

              "Men produce their
                representations and their ideas,
                but it is as living men, men
                acting as they are
                determined by a definite
                development of their powers
                of production."

              "Men developing their material
                production modify together
                with their real existence
                their ways of thinking and
                the products of their ways
                of thinking."

               "It is not consciousness
                which determines existence,
                it is existence which
                determines consciousness."

So, Karl, in what did Marx and Engels see the emancipatory process?

Karl: Led by the International Proletariat, in the Class Struggle, which logically would evolve into Social Revolution, which would topple capitalist society, and which would introduce Socialism, and finally Communism,  Marx saw the historical process of disalienating Labour, and of emancipating the Human Being.

Coseino: Excellent review, Karl. And let me add: Free Labour, which freely and collectively would exploit Nature, and which would eliminate the domination of Man by Man, hence liberating Society, is the solution which Marx offered to annihilate all misery and oppression in contemporary capitalist society.

Well, my dear students, it was "great", a great pleasure. I have to be off. See you next Friday! Don't forget to pay the poor animals here a cordial visit, to see, to think, to study what maltreated Nature  /a n d  perverted Society is all about. Take care and good bye!

(The Lion ferociously roars again! The Monkey jumps excitingly up-and-down! Coseino silently whispers to them: Gnothi seaúton! (Know Thyself!) Over Pico Bolivar, the huge Condor soars, silently vanishing into the infinite azure sky, into eternal Nothing.)

(NEXT)