mal is capable of monitoring and reflecting on its own mental operations of critically evaluating its own mental
activity, of deciding that a given process of mental activity is irrational or illogical—inappropriate to the task of
apprehending reality—and of altering its subsequent mental operations accordingly.
The same conceptual faculty that confers on man a unique stature compels him to confront unique challenges.
No other animal is explicitly aware of the issue of life or death that confronts all organisms. No other animal is
aware of its own mortality—or has the power to extend its longevity through the acquisition of knowledge. No
other animal has the ability—and the responsibility—to weigh its actions in terms of the long-range consequences
for its own life. No other animal has the ability—and the responsibility—to think and plan in terms of a life span.
No other animal has the ability—and responsibility—to continually work at extending its knowledge, thereby
raising the level of its existence.
No other animal faces such questions as: Who am I? How should I seek to live? By what principles should I be
guided in my actions? What goals ought I to pursue? What is to be the meaning of my life? What should I seek to
make of my own person?
The necessity of confronting such issues is essential to the "human condition"—to everything that is distinctive
about man's life. All of man's unique achievements and all of his potential problems are consequences of his
possession of the conceptual form of awareness. In the pages that follow, we shall consider some of these
consequences.