Talk:Humanity/Draft

Humanity refers to the human race or mankind as a whole, to that which is characteristically

or from their animal nature.

Like most primates, humans are by nature

innovations such as art, literature and music.

Society and culture

Society is here defined as the organizations and institutions arising from interaction between humans, while culture is defined here as a set of distinctive material, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual features of a social group, including art, literature, lifestyles, value systems, traditions, rituals, and beliefs. The link between human biology and human behavior and culture is often very close, making it difficult to clearly divide topics into one area or the other; as such, the placement of some subjects may be based on convention more than reality.

Culture and society consist of values, social norms, and

", are objects derived from the culture's values, norms, and understanding of the world.

Language

The capacity for humans to share ideas is unrivaled in known species. The faculty of

.

The invention of

for "sacred carvings".

The science of linguistics describes the structure of language and the relationship between languages. There are estimated to be approximately 6,000 different languages, including sign languages, currently in use, and many thousands more that are considered extinct.

Art, music and literature

Artistic works have existed for almost as long as humankind, from early pre-historic art to contemporary art. Art is one of the most unusual aspects of human behavior and a key distinguishing feature of humans from other species.

As a form of

) to mediate its boundaries. This distinction may be applied to objects or performances, current or historical, and its prestige extends to those who made, found, exhibit, or own them.

In the modern use of the word, art is commonly understood to be the process or result of making material works which, from concept to creation, adhere to the "creative impulse"—that is, art is distinguished from other works by being in large part unprompted by necessity, by biological drive, or by any undisciplined pursuit of recreation.

.

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Spirituality and religion

File:7BrahmanMH.jpg

.

A more organized, but related, concept is

development

, religion has taken on many forms that vary by culture and individual perspective.

Prayaga, India

.

Some of the chief questions and issues religions are concerned with include

Eastern religions

.

Although a majority of humans profess some variety of spiritual or religious belief, some are irreligious, lacking or rejecting belief in the supernatural or spiritual. Additionally, although most religions and spiritual beliefs are clearly distinct from science on both a philosophical and methodological level, the two are not generally considered to be mutually exclusive; a majority of humans hold a mix of both scientific and religious views. The distinction between philosophy and religion, on the other hand, is at times less clear, and the two are linked in such fields as the philosophy of religion and theology.

Philosophy and self-reflection

Raphael's School of Athens

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Philosophy is a discipline or field of study involving the investigation, analysis, and development of ideas at a general, abstract, or fundamental level. It is the discipline searching for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative, rather than observational, means.

The core philosophical disciplines are logic, ontology or metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology, which includes the branches of ethics and aesthetics. Philosophy covers a very wide range of approaches, and is also used to refer to a worldview, to a perspective on an issue, or to the positions argued for by a particular philosopher or school of philosophy.

. This ancient field of study seeks to draw logical conclusions about the nature of the universe, humanity, god, and/or their connections based on the extension of some set of presumed facts borrowed from religion and/or observation.

Humans often consider themselves to be the dominant species on Earth, and the most advanced in intelligence and ability to manage their environment. This belief is especially strong in modern Western culture. Alongside such claims of dominance is often found radical pessimism because of the frailty and brevity of human life.

Humanism is a philosophy which defines a socio-political doctrine the bounds of which are not constrained by those of locally developed cultures, but which seeks to include all of humanity and all issues common to human beings. Because spiritual beliefs of a community often manifests as religious doctrine, the history of which is as factious as it is unitive, secular humanism grew as an answer to the need for a common philosophy that transcended the cultural boundaries of local moral codes and religions. Many humanists are religious, however, and see humanism as simply a mature expression of a common truth present in most religions. Humanists affirm the possibility of an objective truth and accept that human perception of that truth is imperfect. The most basic tenets of humanism are that humans matter and can solve human problems, and that science, freedom of speech, rational thought, democracy, and freedom in the arts are worthy pursuits or goals for all peoples. Modern humanism depends on reason and logic and rejects the supernatural.

Science and technology

Human cultures are both characterized and differentiated by the objects that they make and use.

that are particular to various regions and times.

Improvements in technology are passed from one culture to another. For instance, the

are quickly disseminated.

Such techniques can be passed on by oral tradition. The development of writing, itself a kind of technology, made it possible to pass information from generation to generation and from region to region with greater accuracy.

Together, these developments made possible the commencement of civilization and urbanization, with their inherently complex social arrangements. Eventually this led to the institutionalization of the development of new technology, and the associated understanding of the way the world functions. This science now forms a central part of human culture.

In recent times,

.

Government and politics

A state is an organized political community occupying a definite territory, having an organized government, and possessing internal and external sovereignty. Recognition of the state's claim to independence by other states, enabling it to enter into international agreements, is often important to the establishment of its statehood. The "state" can also be defined in terms of domestic conditions, specifically, as conceptualized by Max Weber, "a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory."^[1]

Government can be defined as the political means of creating and enforcing laws; typically via a bureaucratic hierarchy.

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All of these issues have a direct relationship with economics.

War

War is a state of widespread conflict between states, organizations, or relatively large groups of people, which is characterized by the use of lethal violence between combatants or upon civilians.

A common perception of war is a series of

.

There have been a wide variety of

air power

the skies.

Throughout history there has been a constant struggle between

which they are designed to destroy.

Many see war as destructive in nature, and a negative correlation has been shown between trade and war.

Trade and economics

. The invention of money (and later credit, paper money and non-physical money) greatly simplified and promoted trade.

Trade exists for many reasons. Due to specialization and

. As such, trade between locations benefits both locations.

Economics is a

of goods and services.

Economics, which focuses on measurable variables, is broadly divided into two main branches: microeconomics, which deals with individual agents, such as households and businesses, and macroeconomics, which considers the economy as a whole, in which case it considers aggregate supply and demand for money, capital and commodities. Aspects receiving particular attention in economics are resource allocation, production, distribution, trade, and competition. Economic logic is increasingly applied to any problem that involves choice under scarcity or determining economic value. Mainstream economics focuses on how prices reflect supply and demand, and uses equations to predict consequences of decisions.