Humans: What We Are and Why We Exist

In terms of our biological evolution we humans have no more meaning and purpose than an amoeba, a tree, or a fish. Life? We live to continue living. Yet, thinking about humans only in terms of our natural biological evolution, we encounter a paradox. We are beings who know and know too much. We know ourselves as an idea we have of ourselves, and, so knowing, we wonder how we should live: We venture our lives. We live with an idea in mind. There is a reason for this. Humans are twofold beings: In addition to our natural biological evolution, we became human when we began to speak words to each other. These words were ideas, and they evolved into complex languages. Creating a storehouse of ideas, we made ourselves historical beings. The consequences of our evolution into language-historical awareness were enormous and are described in this book.