REFLECTION ON HUMAN FORM REVEALS DISTINCTIVE HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS…

• possess a living form which is interdependent with though distinct from the matter present in the human being; this form is responsible for the existence of human beings, making them distinct and recognizable as such (pg37)
• are self-organizing beings, organized to serve itself, not others
• possess a unity and self-identity that outlasts its ever-shifting material (pg41); this unity and self-identity implies that human form, like animal form, possess a certain independence, though again this is not total; and again, form is responsible for this persistence by its own organization-in-action.
• possess a genuine "self"—a distinctness and separateness from its "world" or "environment," as well as a "need-inspired" relationship to this "environment." (pg 44)
• possess the three great powers of organic form: action, awareness, and appetite. However, these are highly developed in human beings. (pg 45)
• an internal capaciousness or "inwardness," what we call "subjectivity." Therefore human beings transcend their confinement to the here and now. (pg 48)
• have purposive activity—work to preserve themselves by eating and avoiding being eaten by others (pg50)
• have a place within the larger hierarchy of living forms
• share common ancestry and similarities in form and powers (common body plan, bilateral symmetry, distinct head and tail poles, external sense organs and appendages for locomotion. Like the higher animals, humans possess activities of sensing, remembering, desiring, enjoying, dreaming, play8ng learning, socializing and the experiences of hunger, thirst, pain, fear, anger, spiritedness, lust and affection. Animals display intelligence, some self-control, forms of communication, cooperation, and decent and decorous conduct toward kin. (pg 62)

Unlike other animals, humans…

(each feature is an intensification of life as such and yet unique and apart)

• Human beings are naturally, unpremeditatedly, in conflict with nature—their natural powers make it possible for them, with effort, to oppose natural tendencies, creating a special human standing of their own.
• The structure of the hands and arms make every object something humans can grasp—humans are open to things as they are (and not as food). Thus we are related to our food not only as food, but as an object in itself. We are potentially related to all things as objects to grasp or feel. This creates a theoretical relationship between human and other objects. Practically, due to their structure, the arm and hand become tools—new kinds of practical world-relations come into existence.
• Just as the eyes are no longer subordinated to the mouth and snout, so sight (and other intelligent faculties)are no longer sub-ordinated to eating as well. Things as they are become objects of knowledge—things to encounter and experience—things become related to us as objects to be perceived and known. Truth becomes a human goal in addition to nourishment. (Truth is often called nourishment for the mind.) Falsity and error become a possibility. We become a questioning animal.
• Self-consciousness turns our selves into objects to be known—we create a relationship with ourselves.  Self-consciousness makes ethics a possibility for human beings; awareness of our need for others (sexually), our shame at our animal powers, and our need for self-esteem make ethics a necessity.  We are forced to compare what we are with what we would like to be (the good).
• In conclusion, new "distances" exist for the human, as the self becomes more separated from the world by its very openness and ambivalence to all things. If everything is a possible object to eat, to grasp, to know, then nothing is peculiarly ours. (No environment, no habitat, no way of life.) Yet the separation is not due to isolation from everything, but to the possibility of relationship with everything and anything! The human being has no purpose because it can have any purpose.
• Rationality, by way of conclusion, is not separation of human beings from other living things, but an intensification of the relationships possessed by all animals. Those relationships are increased and broadened, so that "openness" is the peculiarly human way of being-in-the-world and the peculiar distinction of rationality.
• marks of human rationality (openness) in eating (like other human powers, eating is free and open)

• human mouth can eat anything (most tactile and sensitive part); mouth is highly discriminative and the tongue extraordinarily versatile
• human diet and appetite flexible and omnivorous (human anatomy and
  physiology)
• human dentition unspecialized; human teeth are omnicompetent and ready for any fodder
• human jaws are unspecialized and versatile
• human environment is broad, curiosity about foods highly developed, and behaviors of exploration highly diversified
• human taste is omnivorous; notoriously subject to influences of eye and mind, and of course, habit. Taste is free, while the nourishing is necessary