溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
What Is the Proper Work of a Human Being?
As the flute-player has playing and the eye has seeing — what is the work (ergon) proper to a human being as such?
The work of a human being is an activity of the soul in accord with reason.
The "proper work of man" argument became a watershed in the Western image of the human. Aristotle fixed it as the activity of reason, and this definition passed to Aquinas, who nailed the human down as the "rational animal." Yet modernity rebelled. Hume declared reason but a slave of the passions; after Darwin the sharp line between human and beast blurred. Marx located the human essence not in reason but in labor — the activity of making a world. One "proper work" split the lineage over whether it is reason, labor, or feeling.
The more machines take over even calculation and judgment, the more urgent this question grows: what, then, is the work left to humans alone?
Aristotle reasoned boldly by analogy: as the carpenter has his work and the eye has seeing, so a human being, as such, must have a proper work.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Aristotle reasoned boldly by analogy: as the carpenter has his work and the eye has seeing, so a human being, as such, must have a proper work. It is not nourishing or growing — plants share that — nor mere sensing, which beasts share. What remains as ours alone is a life of activity guided by reason. I understand this question is not about my job. Whatever earns my bread, am I living out that work belonging to humans alone? I stand before it, recounting my day.
✍️Your Answer
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