I haven't worked this out yet. I know to be human is in one part environment and one part essence. But where the environment begins and a person ends is not a rigid boundary. Is it at the surface of your skin? Do we inhabit bodies as consciousness? It is unclear. But clearly, when we talk about what it means to be human we are talking about the human condition and human nature, because we implicitly accept that human beings are conditioned creatures and simultaneously capable of consciously shaping their conditioning. The will to create or initiate conditioning, essentially 'choice', is godlike, for what is a god but a creator of meaning, one who wills things into existence. The foundational philosophy of Western Civilization says as much: that men are made in the image of God. Yet human beings are mortal and must in their material existence obey the rule of Nature. So they are not supranatural as modern men like to think. If anything they are supernatural because they are more like union of the finite and infinite quality of the kosmos than even Nature or God. Why this matters, I don't fully understand. But it must somehow. This dualism has to be at the heart of what makes us human. How do you understand humanity?
RE: The Art Of Debate - Why it's okay to have a different opinion