ABSTRACT
Human beings do not derive the measure for their nomos, according to which they allocate living spaces among themselves or apportion the services of nature and their own labour, directly from their needs. Needs come and go; generally more than one surface in people’s consciousness at any one time, so that people must choose which they wish to satisfy first, and which they will postpone or even ignore. Ultimately, human beings can, by virtue of capacity for reflection, distance themselves – at least for a certain period of time – from almost all the needs they become aware of. Needs are a basis for the actions of humankind, but they never entirely determine what people do. Human beings prove themselves to be human beings in that they can make needs the object of reflection. Reflection, however, opens up alternatives; it shows that several possible solutions exist for the needs one experiences. A human being, choosing to act upon reflection, has the possibility (but also the onus) of choice between alternatives. Reflection that leads to a decision orients itself by a standard belonging to a different sphere other than that of needs, namely the sphere of rationality. We will discuss this standard for choice under the term ‘interest’. Interest is linked to need: it is the layer of reflection that enables us to subject needs to the viewpoint of interest, and which, in reverse, links the viewpoint of interest to the physical layer of human existence. Nonetheless, the physical layer and layer of the imagination, separated by reflection, appear to human beings only at a certain distance. As soon as human beings experience themselves in their humanity, they are already distanced from everything natural – including their own bodies, which can at times be encountered as something foreign. This distance is a constituent of being human. This is why human beings can postpone satisfaction, transfer it or even relinquish it. This ability to distance ourselves from almost everything directly affecting us is the source of many complex, partially conflicting possibilities of being human. Distancing ourselves enables us to obtain an overview (if a somewhat limited one) both of ourselves, as well as of whatever else currently exists. This overview extends even far beyond what exists in the external world: the imagination and (especially) our rationality, cause non-existent things to pass before our inner eye – as an image or a thought. Gaining distance enables human beings to move beyond what they directly perceive within and without themselves.
