Understanding the Human Being
The article Understanding Human Being by Harry Yeatts articulates some characteristics that define how human beings exist. This essay provides a summary of this article delineating some of the most significant issues highlighted in this article.
To begin with, Yeatts indicates that every living thing have their distinct way of surviving ( 1). However, humans reciprocate all other animals since they use senses to survive. This is why every person is fitted with senses such as smell, taste, sight and hearing among others. According to Yeatts, the coordination of these senses tells the brain on what to do in order to enhance survival tactics to the human being (2). For example, when a person is exposed to fire they feel the heat and immediately avoid the danger of being burnt. Yeatts says that the mind has special capabilities of pushing the unnecessary sensory away to accommodate the ones offering solution to the impending problem. This process is actualized through what Yeatts calls an attitude or a way of thinking when one is doing something. In this case, muscles, senses, and hormones act in a coordinated way to solve the immediate problem.
Moving on, Yeatts is perplexed in regards to the level of socialism upheld by human beings. In fact, Yeatts says that despite the availability of huge tracts of inhabited land human beings will choose to construct households close to each other (7). From this observation, Yeatts concludes that human beings need each other for survival as they depend on each other. For instance, the author says that human being needs the other to reproduce, pass information, and even provide food. Actually, the article emphasizes that human beings are social animals since they learn from each other. When a child is born, they learn some basic things from either observing or being taught by the older individuals (Yeatts 8). In the absence of such individuals, the child would be disadvantaged as they may lack a chance to learn or gain knowledge. Another important thing to note is that humans tend to stay in groups and each group reciprocates their behaviors, beliefs, norms, and overall understanding of life. Basically, they have shared beliefs which mean they depend on each other.
Human beings may be characterized by their gender roles: male and female. Children are brought about by the sexual interaction between these two genders. Yeatts says that both male and female are innately protective over their siblings, posses caring skills, have the ability to provide food, teach, and even provide other social necessities (11). Therefore, in absence of one of the sex the other will be able to carry out the necessary social actions. In spite of this characteristic, the male and female are differentiated by their body structure, chemical makeup and even their emotional responses. Each body structure is fit to carry out specific tasks such as giving birth. Yeatts acknowledges that with these similarities and differences the male and female species are intrinsically attracted to each other.
Humans are also bound to conflicts, disagreement and even hatred amongst themselves. They elicit love and discord at the same time due to the differing body demands. However, Yeatts notes that humans have overall intentions of living harmoniously and that is why they have devised numerous structures for settling disputes and disagreements (11). Therefore, understanding human beings as asserted by Yeatts might be very difficult based on the aforementioned characteristics.
Work cited
Yeatts, Harry. Understanding Human Beings: Simply Complicated. 1997. Print