If we look towards the origin of man, surely there we will find his essence. And with this essence broken from its hiddenness, the “point” of man’s existence, the reason and logic of his being will surely manifest itself. In the light of that manifestation, we will see how man can begin to gain an understanding of who, how, and why he is.
Significance - the essence of humankind
The evolutionary appearance of man in pre-history did not proceed as a simple and direct development from a single ape-like ancestor. Nor did his development occur in only one particularly hospitable place that could be recognized as his original cradle. Rather, the record of early man shows a complex lineage that is diverse and diffuse in both time and space. And yet, from estimates we can be fairly certain that man as man began to walk the earth approximately 3 million years ago across a vast territory of the present African, European, and Asian continents.
“As man”… This redundant qualifier added above could better be phrased as a question. What is the essential quality that defines the presence of “man” among his pre-hominid and hominid ancestors? By what measure of judgment do the archeologists and anthropologists in their search for original man decide that among the bones at one site of excavation there has been found evidence of man, while at another it can be concluded that man was not there? This question is critical. The answer to this question will frame the idea of man by recognizing that original and essential element without which and before which man could not be present.
In this most simple and objective and original sense, what constitutes the “idea of man” is first and foremost his upright posture - “uprightness”. The discovery of man’s oldest presence on earth to date, “Lucy”, finds only bones that verify an upright posture. And so, with near awe and reverence, she is called “man”. Later archeological sites have since found all sorts of recognizable and familiar traces that verify man’s distinctive presence - tools, artifacts, burial sites, primitive structures, and art. But these later refinements should not be confused with essence and the very first appearance of man recognized “as man” is by merely the physical characteristic of holding himself upright. This uprightness, possessed as the distinguishing essence of the first man is nothing less than the essence and origin of man; that without which man “as man” is impossible to conceive.
The significance of this cannot be overestimated. This quality of man is essential not only because it is possessed by the first man, but precisely because it is unalterable and inescapable to any conceivable man of any time or place. It has nothing to do with what man does, nor with anything that he could possibly make, think, acquire or destroy. Rather, this quality is identical with man. It pertains precisely to what man is.
Essential ideas, ideas of “being”, are at once the poorest and richest of ideas. On the one hand, in terms of logic and definition, they contain nothing but what is necessary and inherent to a thing, excluding the rich and confusing array of qualities and variations that find themselves in the world.