The term is also used in a [[metaphysics|metaphysical]] sense, to describe the joy, terror and other feelings or emotions associated with [[being]] and [[existence]]. Humans, to an apparently superlative degree amongst all living things, are aware of the passage of time, can remember the past and imagine the future, and are intimately aware of their own [[death|mortality]]. Only human beings are known to ask themselves questions relating to the purpose of life beyond the base need for survival, or the nature of existence beyond that which is [[empirical knowledge|empirically]] apparent: What is the [[meaning]] of [[existence]]? Why was I born? Why am I here? Where will I go when I die? The human struggle to find answers to these questions — and the very fact that we can conceive them and ask them — is what defines the human condition in this sense of the term. | The term is also used in a [[metaphysics|metaphysical]] sense, to describe the joy, terror and other feelings or emotions associated with [[being]] and [[existence]]. Humans, to an apparently superlative degree amongst all living things, are aware of the passage of time, can remember the past and imagine the future, and are intimately aware of their own [[death|mortality]]. Only human beings are known to ask themselves questions relating to the purpose of life beyond the base need for survival, or the nature of existence beyond that which is [[empirical knowledge|empirically]] apparent: What is the [[meaning]] of [[existence]]? Why was I born? Why am I here? Where will I go when I die? The human struggle to find answers to these questions — and the very fact that we can conceive them and ask them — is what defines the human condition in this sense of the term. |