Open main menu
Selbstbetrachtung by Alfred Kubin, about 1901
A lady seated by herself
This penultimate scene of the Admonitions Scroll shows a palace lady sitting in quiet contemplation, presumably following the admonitions in the accompanying lines:[1] "Therefore I say: Be cautious and circumspect in all you do, and from this good fortune will arise. Calmly and respectfully think about your actions, and honor and fame will await you."


The earliest historical records demonstrate the great interest which humanity has had in itself. “Know thyself" was inscribed on the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi over 3,000 years ago.

Human self-reflection is related to the philosophy of consciousness, the topic of awareness, consciousness in general and the philosophy of mind.[citation needed]



Prehistoric timesEdit

Prehistoric notions about the status of humanity may be guessed by the etymology of ancient words for man. Latin homo (PIE *dʰǵʰm̥mō) means "of the earth, earthling", probably in opposition to "celestial" beings. Greek ἂνθρωπος (mycenaean *anthropos) means "low-eyed", again probably contrasting with a divine perspective.[citation needed]

Ancient OrientEdit

From the 3rd-millennium Old Kingdom of Egypt, belief in the eternal afterlife of the human ka is documented. From the earliest times, man made out a claim of dominance of humanity alongside radical pessimism because of the frailty and brevity of human life (in the Hebrew Bible, for example, dominion of man is promised in Genesis 1:28, but the author of Ecclesiastes bewails the vanity of all human effort).[citation needed]

Classical antiquityEdit

Protagoras made the famous claim that "Man is the measure of all things; of what is, that it is; of what is not, that it is not". Socrates advocated for all humans to "know thyself", and gave the (doubtlessly tongue-in-cheek) definition of humans as "featherless bipeds" (Plato, Politicus). More serious is Aristotle's description of man as the "communal animal" (ζῶον πολιτικόν), i.e., emphasizing society-building as a central trait of human nature, and "thought bearer animal" (ζῶον λόγον ἔχον, animal rationale),[citation needed] a term that also inspired the species' taxonomy, Homo sapiens.[citation needed]

Middle AgesEdit

The dominant world-view of medieval Europe, as directed by the Catholic Church, was that human existence is essentially good and created in "original grace", but because of concupiscence, is marred by sin, and that its aim should be to focus on the beatific vision after death. The 13th century pope Innocent III wrote about the essential misery of earthly existence in his "On the misery of the human condition" – a view that was disputed by, for example, Giannozzo Manetti in his treatise "On human dignity."[citation needed]


A famous quote of Shakespeare's Hamlet (II, ii, 115-117), expressing the contrast of human physical beauty, intellectual faculty, and ephemeral nature:

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

René Descartes famously and succinctly proposed: Cogito ergo sum[2] (French: "Je pense donc je suis"; English: "I think, therefore I am").

Modern eraEdit

The Enlightenment was driven by a renewed conviction, that, in the words of Immanuel Kant, "Man is distinguished above all animals by his self-consciousness, by which he is a 'rational animal'." In the 19th century, Karl Marx defined man as "labouring animal" (animal laborans) in conscious opposition to this tradition. In the early 20th century, Sigmund Freud dealt a serious blow to positivism by postulating that human behaviour is to a large part controlled by the unconscious mind.[citation needed]

Comparison to other speciesEdit

Various attempts have been made to identify a single behavioural characteristic that distinguishes humans from all other animals.

Many anthropologists think that readily observable characteristics (tool-making and language) are based on less easily observable mental processes that might be unique among humans: the ability to think symbolically, in the abstract or logically, although several species have demonstrated some abilities in these areas. Nor is it clear at what point exactly in human evolution these traits became prevalent. They may not be restricted to the species Homo sapiens, as the extinct species of the genus Homo (e.g. Homo neanderthalensis, Homo erectus) are believed to also have been adept tool makers and may also have had linguistic skills.[citation needed]

In learning environments, reflection is an important part of the loop to go through in order to maximize the utility of having experiences. Rather than moving on to the next 'task' we can review the process and outcome of the task and – with the benefit of a little distance (lapsed time) we can reconsider what the value of experience might be for us and for the context of which it was a part.[citation needed]

See alsoEdit


  1. ^ McCausland, Shane (2003), First Masterpiece of Chinese Painting: The Admonitions Scroll, British Museum Press, p. 78, ISBN 978-0-7141-2417-9
  2. ^ Descartes, René; Principia Philosophiae (1644), Part 1, article 7:"Ac proinde hæc cognitio, ego cogito, ergo sum, est omnium prima & certissima, quæ cuilibet ordine philosophanti occurrat."