Decoding “What is Man?” : Chapter 1 part 1

In “What is Man?”, Dr. Edgar Andrews, a leading Christian physicist in Europe with two earned doctorate degrees in physics, explores three answers to this question: Judaeo-Christian, secularist, and evolutionary. By ‘man’ he means either a male, person, or the human race. The Judae-Christian view is that human beings are made in the image of God. The secularist view is that human intelligence isn’t sui generis. There are or could be other creatures with intellect in the universe. Finally, the evolutionary or Darwinist answer is that humanity has come to be by means of common descent, random mutations, etc.

The Riddle of the World

Andrews thesis is that we need the biblical doctrine of sin and redemption to “really” understand ourselves:

“This book contends that we can never really understand ourselves—
our triumphs and our failures—without this biblical perspective on
human sin and our need of redemption.”

Andrews locates three facts that need to be explained- human achievement, uncertainty about the meaning of humanity, and fear of the future.

It is possible that he deals with all of these states of affairs; however, the focus of the book seems to be the second fact–i.e., “uncertainty about what it means to be human.” Andrews’ book title clearly denotes that the book is about the nature of ‘man’. Here, we find something of an ambiguity. The question about meaning itself is ambiguous, for about meaning can refer to questions about the referent of a word. For example, if I say “Look at the horse,” a question could be raised about the meaning of ‘horse’. Imagine this in the context a English language learner upon hearing the word ‘horse’ for the first time. To answer this question, the speaker might point to a horse or its functions, or explain a horse in terms of the categories to which it belongs–i.e., its nature. Thus, I think the questions stated is ambiguous between the meaning of the word (semantic meaning) and the nature of the referent (ontology).

The relationship between the question explored in the book and the thesis shows more of the logical structure of the argument. It appears that Dr. Andrews is making an abductive argument. If so, then his thesis could be reinterpreted as such: The best explanation of man is this biblical view. Further, inference to the best explanation (abduction) is evaluated by the data set it seeks to explain. As already indicated, the data set explicitly mentioned by Andrews was a) human achievement, b) uncertainty about human being, and c) a pessimistic view of the future.

Digging Up Roots

In this section, we acquire a premise in Andrews’ argument. He writes that “our origins ultimately determine who and what we are.” This statement is ostensibly true until you attempt to press it for clarity. I think that the truth of the matter lies closer to our composition or constitution determines what we are; however, our origins can explain the why we are. Andrews also writes that a young person asks about their origins, “Where did I come from?”, that the child wants to know more about their consciousness than reproductive biology. I partially agree. Further, I think that a complexity within how human beings speak about themselves raises another point of clarity. It seems to me that when children ask “Who am I?” or “Where did I come from?” that they ask about themselves holistically. I don’t think that they want to know about their consciousness alone. Even on a Christian paradigm, the mind (soul or spirit or all three) is only a part of what a human person is.

I think that there are several questions lurking beneath the surface when we examine what a thing is. Aristotle’s four causes are helpful here. There is the material cause, what a thing is made of. There is the efficient cause, the cause that brought something about. The formal cause, the explanation of a things’ constitution or composition. Finally, there is the final cause. This is the purpose for which a thing was made. I think that the question by a young person could suggest a desire know the answer to anyone of these questions.

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