The Primary Human Drive Is ... ?

[sear]

Doctor Sigmund Freud ostensibly asserted the primary human drive is pleasure. BUT !!


Frankl disagreed, countering that it is the discovery and pursuit of what the individual finds meaningful that drives us.


A Nazi death camp prisoner a few hours away from his final shower may hold different views and preferences than a wealthy, healthy, happy young woman preparing for her two month long vacation.


Who's right?
Why?

 

[Wolf]

IMHO what drives us Humans is simply "Survival" We can take pleasure in helping others, or standing up for what we believe is right, but "when the clock is ticking" and we (or our close Kin) are under threat "survival" brings the "blood flow up " and we find strength not only in a physical sense but our minds centre on the threat, and then "Act". I also believe that our D.N.A. plays a possible a major part in our reaction.

 

[sear]

"IMHO what drives us Humans is simply "Survival"" W #2

In general terms quite so.
More specifically, surviving to breed replacement population. Among asexual reproducers that might seem to be one for one. Among sexual reproducers it's two for two, the same ratio, but more genetically diverse.
In reality, due to attrition ("that dingo ate my baby"), infertility etc, in humans zero population growth (ZPG, neither positive nor negative) requires a birth rate of about 2.2 offspring per breeding pair.

"I also believe that our D.N.A. plays a possible a major part in our reaction." W #2

Wilson goes even further than that. It's a competitive world. We know that. We compete for the best jobs, the best spouse, the best neighborhood to live in, etc. This according to Wilson may give us the illusion it's us, the individual human beings that compete.
But Wilson says it's actually our DNA that's competing against the DNA of other individuals.

 

[Wolf]

But Wilson says it's actually our DNA that's competing against the DNA of other individuals. Sear
That statement makes a great deal of sense. The fact as I have quoted before 95% of the population of the World is "inept and leaderless" the rest 1% are saints, 1% are "Rear-end persons" and the remaining 3% are Leaders seems to bear fruit.
Allowing our D.N.A. does control our actions whether due to threat or survival again seems true. I watched a program about "Stonehenge" and how back some 4000 yrs. ago Blue stones weighing 7 to 9 tons were "transported" over rough ground some 150 miles is proof that once Leaders have encourage whether by force or belief "the leaderless" anything is possible. As matter of little interest, I once lived near where the stones were taken. "Cutting the stones" from the cliff was a task that was equal to the moving.

 

[sear]

Broad spectrum W #4, I think it's stupendous how far humans have advanced technologically. Taming fire was a huge accomplishment. Fire
- provides heat
- helps turn off the dark
- introduced the full suite of cooking arts

Look at how much further along we are than that. Cavemen simply can't build computer chips.
To think our start with it included mining from outcrops with antler picks.

On PBS I recently saw a fabulous demonstration. A bloke showed up with a thick leather mat, some stones, and a dead rabbit.
He draped the leather over his thigh, and on camera made a beautiful stone knife. No handle, but handle not needed.
He then skinned & dressed the carcass for cooking. And the stone knife was as sharp as most modern steel knives used for that purpose.

Since stone knives, a billion cars, some space telescopes, an International space station, and a few cars abandoned on the moon.

The saddest of addenda, our civility lags centuries if not millennia behind. Imagine where humanity would be if our intellect, our humanity had kept pace with our technology.