Aristotle on Becoming Human

Abstract

The essay focuses on Aristotle's reflections on the human being—on humanity not as given, but in fact always to come, understood as a task. I highlight the constructive work involved in becoming human and show that, far from construction in its merely techno-mechanical character, at stake is a formative process vastly proceeding in the dark, lacking eidetically clear guidelines. Indeed, it is through such a process, through such a groping, that eidetic clarification, if at all possible, may be accomplished. In the examination of the extraordinary artifact that the human being is, I discuss matters pertaining to the indemonstrability of first principles; the architectonic character of ethics and its fundamental function vis-à-vis all other human endeavors, including the scientific disciplines(ethics as first philosophy); the relation between human constitution and nature; and issues of freedom, self-making, and self-overcoming.