“what is it to be human?”

“what is it to be human?” What is Dick’s answer to this question? How are androids and humans contrasted in this novel, and to what purpose? Is his view of human nature inherently negative, positive, mixed, or ambiguous? Can you apply any theories or ideas about human nature found in any of our other texts in this class to any of the issues that you see raised in the novel?

 

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“What is it to be human?”

Philip K. Dick`s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Is set on post-apocalyptic Earth in the Bay Area of California. World War Terminus has devastated the population of Earth and left it nearly uninhabitable, forcing survivors to emigrate to Mars or one of the other unnamed colony planets. As incentive, emigrants are given free android servants to accompany them on their voyage and serve them on Mars. The androids are extremely sophisticated and are nearly indistinguishable from human beings. The novel explores the moral implications of enslaving a human-like biological machine, but more centrally uses the invention of a humanoid replica to critique and define the essence of humanity; whatever qualities distinguish humans from androids become the essential aspects of humanity.

Furthermore, Klein describes pain and its relationship to suffering, which is of interest for this paper. Klein makes a point that because pains are unpleasant, it is generally acknowledged that people go out of their way to avoid them and get rid of them when they arise. Because hurt is a feature of pains both emotional and physical, it is often assumed that it must be an always occurring property of pain. Klein then offers four arguments to distinguish between pain and suffering. The first argument, he claims is also the simplest. He claims that pain and hurt come apart, and calls this the argument from dissociation. He explains that some pains don’t hurt, and many things that hurt aren’t pains. Klein gives example after example of pains that do not hurt, and hurts that do not stem from pain, but instead just motivate the bearer to move them self or take initiative to use their power to fix the pain. The next argument he presents is the argument from independent variation. Before he delves into the argument, he reminds readers that the question trying to be answered is whether pain and suffering should be distinguished as separate phenomena, not whether pain can occur without suffering. He returns to the argument, stating that pain and suffering are able to independently vary from one another in their intensity. Simply stated, something can hurt intensely but not cause suffering or hurt mildly but bring intense suffering. He claims that this is solid evidence for his view that proposes pain intensity alone is part of pain, while suffering is a secondary characteristic. His third argument is what he calls the argument from differing domains. In it, he attempts to distinguish between pain and hurt. He states that all things that hurt don’t deserve the title of pain and continues to arg

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