The essence of human beings is neither existence nor desire, but social attributes.

The word essence often expresses the concept corresponding to the phenomenon, that is, the inner connection and fundamental nature of things. Human essence is divided into class essence and personal essence.

1. The human species essence is the fundamental nature of human beings relative to other things (including non-living things, plants and animals).

Labor is the human essence.

First, labor is the fundamental difference between humans and animals.

Marx pointed out in "Das Kapital": "Franklin defined people as "a toolmaking animal", an animal that makes tools."

Second, labor is human consciousness A concentrated expression of agency.

Human initiative includes two aspects: active understanding of the world and active transformation of the world. The material activity of transforming the world is labor, which is a concentrated expression of the unique conscious initiative of human beings.

Third, labor is the driving force behind the formation of human social relations.

Labor formed the initial sexual taboo and gave birth to marriage and family relationships; labor formed production relations, that is, economic relations; on the basis of production relations, political relations and cultural relations were produced.

2. The essence of an individual is the fundamental nature of a specific, specific person (Zhang San, Li Si, etc.) and the intrinsic relationship between its various attributes.

There are three major aspects of human attributes:

① Natural attributes (including appearance, beauty, etc.);

② Social attributes (including good and evil virtues) etc.);

③Mental attributes (including IQ, etc.).

Virtue is a concentrated expression of personal essence; in other words, the most important criterion for identifying personal essence is the quality of moral character. What is the most popular question most children ask when watching movies and TV shows? ——"Is he (she) a good person or a bad guy?"

About the essence of human beings, Marx has a famous saying: "The essence of human beings is not an abstract object inherent in a single person. In its reality, it is It is the sum of all social relations. "Many scholars have misinterpreted this famous saying as: "The essence of a person is determined by social relations." In fact, personal essence is the unity of social constraints and subject choice. . The transformation of the last emperor Puyi into a new socialist man was the result of social transformation and personal efforts. However, Gao Gang, a leading cadre of the new society, chose to end his life by committing suicide when he was criticized and educated.