The function of the human mind elaborated upon in the previous journal is an aspect of human reason, human reason being man’s characteristic feature. It is reason, the structure of the human mind that allows us to imagine different futures and choose one preferred future and act to attain that future state, that is man’s characteristic feature. Imagination, choice, and action are all one and the same process, the process of human reasoning, a product of man’s quest to survive and thrive in a world of scarcity. This is what sets us apart from all other creatures on the Earth.
According to Mises, human reason would have never come about if we lived in a world where means were not scarce. “For the primary task of reason is to cope consciously with the limitations imposed upon man by nature, is to fight scarcity.” Of course, it is impossible to imagine a world without scarcity; the human mind, designed as it is to cope with the reality of scarcity, literally cannot understand the concept of infinity or lack of limitations. Even if every external resource was available to all men in abundance, and man was able to move instantaneously about the universe, and had unlimited time to enjoy the goods available to him, still he would have to choose which good to enjoy first. He would still be limited to one experience at a time, and would still have to prioritize his ends, still have to reason and act. Already this hypothetical is difficult to conceive; to hypothesize that man could experience everything, everywhere, and all at once, is beyond human comprehension. We live in a world of scarcity, and our minds have developed thusly.
So, if reason, man’s characteristic feature, has developed to aid man in his struggle against scarcity, and if all action is an external manifestation of man’s reason, and if man is always acting, then man is always reasoning, and his actions are an outcome of reason. We may, therefore, examine man’s actions and attribute them to his reason, i.e., we may seek to understand the purpose behind man’s actions, as they must be purposeful, being the product of human reason. Therefore, all that man is may be traced to human reason and action. But there is something more, if not something separate, that distinguishes man from the rest of the natural world: society. It is indeed true that throughout nature we see many manifestations of organisms working together in vast networks: anthills, beehives, wolfpacks, amoebas, etc. The reason for this is natural selection: animals that worked together tended to survive and pass on their genes to later animals, thus increasingly tending towards a “social” creature. But man is different. There may, indeed, be an evolutionary tendency for man to band together into societies. But, as we have established above, man is different in that he, alone among the creatures of the Earth, chooses. Yes, there are many influences of man’s choices, many of which he may not even be aware of, but still, “to live is for man the outcome of a choice.” An outcome of reason. Therefore, we cannot examine the actions of men and attribute them to raw nature; we must ask what the purpose of those actions are. We see man as the social creature: why? Why does man form societies?
The answer is the same for every other action of man: to survive and thrive in a world of scarcity. At this point in our evolution, there may be genes which tend to favor cooperation. But, at the beginning, what drew men together was not some “call of the blood.” Cooperation was the reasoned action of men who recognized their own limitations, who recognized the advantages of a division of labor, and who chose to work with other members of their own species in peace to combat scarcity. “Human society...is the outcome of a purposeful utilization of...the higher productivity of the division of labor.” Integration in the social division of labor yields an increased production and utilization of goods and services for every individual; it is therefore in every individual’s interest to join society and so integrate himself into its division of labor. It is no mysterious drive to band together that draws us to each other, but the cold, calculated reasoning necessary to man’s survival. But, given the universal application of the law of association, the universal applicability of the fact that the division of labor results in increased productivity, we may conclude that “human action itself tends toward cooperation and association.” Some form of cooperation is a necessary part of being human.
More than three thousand years ago, Aristotle recognized that man is the “social animal.” Mises confirms this by concluding that “The development of human reason and human society are one and the same process.” This can be seen in the fact that language is a significant aid in the development of conscious thought, and that language cannot be developed in isolation. Additionally, it has often been pointed out by liberal authors, in response to critiques of our hyper-focus on the material benefits of market economies, that concern with more noble pursuits is undeniably more possible and more common where man does not need to worry so much about baser needs and wants. This argument can be broadened to the point where one may argue that the building/changing aspect of man, that distinguishing aspect of our species, would not be possible in a man on his own, who must spend every moment just keeping up with the demands of nature: eating, sheltering, searching for food and shelter. It is the moments of rest that come with the increased productivity of the division of labor that allows man to think of different worlds. It is the confidence that comes with the increased productivity of the division of labor that allows man to take risks and attempt to change the world. It is the lengthened lifespan of a man yielded by the increased productivity of the division of labor that allows enough knowledge to be accumulated and experimentation to be conducted to develop theories of causation necessary to any action. Indeed, it seems that man, so physically insignificant among the creatures of the Earth, would not have survived long in the world without his reason and the human cooperation that it produced.
The fact that man is not only a creature of reason, but a creature of society, will have great implications for our development of a theory of being human and the projects such a theory will inform.
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