Survival In Contemporary American Society

Human instinct and human nature is built upon the basic need to survive. How this has applied to human existence has changed dramatically since the dawn of man—upon our genesis, survival was a matter fixated literally on just avoiding death and bodily harm. The rise of the first civilization of Sumer conveyed a shift in how humans prioritized their lives, no longer viewing life as merely avoiding death and instead aspiring to flourish. All societies are built up on a that basic need to survive, though survival as a concept (particularly in wealthier nations) has become more distanced from innate aversion of death. Survival as a concept, particularly in contemporary American society, is more about being able to stay comfortable within the confines
A natural part of human life is the formation of personal relationships, be it business relationships between coworkers, values between friends, the formation of romantic relationships, or strengthening the bond of the family. In the early stages of human existence, being the close ally of someone who was stronger than you both reduced the possibility that they would pose a threat to you and increased the probability of you having protection against physical threats. Being able to cooperate in parenting secured the safety of whatever offspring you had, therefore ensuring the survival of your lineage. In contemporary society, however, relationships tend to be formed less for the sake of protection and more solely because we have evolved to enjoy some variety of companionship. Thus, part of thriving as a human person in society comes from having and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Aristotle devotes numerous books in Nicomachean Ethics to discussing the importance of friendship in morality, particularly the importance of prioritizing the true friendship (where both fully-virtuous parties increase the virtue of the other, give and receive equally, delight in each other solely for the sake of each other, etc.). Mill emphasizes friendship and companionship as higher forms of pleasure that ought to be curated alongside aesthetic, intellectual, spiritual, and basic pleasures. The entire focus of care ethics in accordance with Virginia Held is on the role that “caring activities [and relationships] such as [parenting]” (Held, 26) play in perspectives of human morality. Even Kant, while he does not necessarily value human emotionality or relationships of any sort as highly as he does with reason, insists that humans act “on a maxim that involves its own universal validity for every