Richard asked:

Is it possible to articulate an object or rationale for the telosof being a human?

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You seem to be asking this in the context of Aristotle and Plato... if that's your approach, you have, I
assume, read Heidegger and his followers on this (if not, he's the one to go on for a modern treatment
of this). There's also the strictly religious point of view: de Chardin, for example. But you might also try
Dewey; he has some interesting things to say on this subject from a rather different perspective.
Modern positions on naturalized ethics also attempt to answer this question... I'm not too familiar with
this area, however. There's Johnson's Moral Imagination,but that's only one of many.

So in answer to your question, there are very many people who believe that it is possible to articulate
the telos of being human, ranging from the religious to the phenomenological to the postmodern to
the naturalized; just pick your poison. I'm certainly not going to try to summarize all those positions
here.

Steven Ravett Brown

First ask yourself if you want to be called a robot or an "intelligent animal". Then think of what may be
the difference to being "a human". The idea of Aristotle's was to bring out the best possibilities of any
being, and that he called "virtue". So his question was: what are the virtues that make the difference
between "man-kind" and (for instance) "ape-kind" or "horse-kind". But of course, nobody can hinder
you if you are satisfied being a happy ape. You must find out for yourself if that is "a rationale for the
telos of being a human".

The next question would be, what exactly does it come to "being a human". That is one of the
deepest questions of philosophy, that neither Aristotle nor Aquinas nor Kant could answer
convincingly. It's one of the great open questions of the philosophia perennis.The greatest danger in
our time is to mistake man for an "intelligent ape" or a "smart robot". Perhaps you should read F.R.
Leavis The Great Traditionor C.S. Lewis, but all the best philosophy and poetry has been and is
concerned with this question.

Hubertus Fremerey

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