If people aren't tools then what are they?

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So if you're not supposed to look at people as tools, objects to be used for a specific function. Then what are they?

Thank you.

Human beings are made in the image and likeness of God
and are therefore infinitely precious.

...

Currently, humans are the pinnacle of evolutionary processes among the Simian genetic branch.

People are...people.

(some really are tools though, don't be fooled. )

I like your screen name. I guess people are fellow observers in this thing we call life.

They're their own people who don't exist just for your benefit.

Just another animal, and a rather lousy sort of animal at that.

If you want to be cartoonishly cynical, you could divide people into tools or obstacles. I don't think such an attitude would be healthy.

What would you like people to look at you as?

If that is what you think of people, then you are on the wrong forum. Google psychopathy and see a specialist.

What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.

I think you're "supposed" to think of them as other independent beings, who despite having differences are overall not really much different from yourself.

"antisocial personality disorder" would be better search terms. I hope you're aware that many people with it have no desire to "get better".

...why would people be tools to begin with? people don't exist for your own benefit to use when you need them, unless i'm just grossly misunderstanding what you mean

People are what result of the product of your insane mind.

Antisocial PD is a mixed term. In DSM 5, it's largely synonymous with psychopathy, but in DSM-IV, it referred to chronic criminals regardless of their personality. There are caring, empathic people who meet DSM-IV criteria for ASPD, and there are many who do want to get better. Psychopaths, on the other hand, are by definition uncaring people. I have encountered a few self-proclaimed psychopaths who want to be better people (eg James Fallon), but most are fine with being uncaring people.

People are different versions of yourself.

You should treat people as if you could feel what they feel and see what they see, considering their own opinions, likes and dislikes. You can't use them like objects because they might not want to be used as objects just as you wouldn't want to be used as one. If you want them to do something for you you need to be useful for them too or at least make them feel like they want to do something for you because you also wouldn't just do something for them unless you needed them, wanted to help them or liked to do what they want you to do.

That's pretty much it.

I'll second the explanation above; it's a good one.

People aren't tools -- or, if they are, so are you. Tools using other tools.

Treating others as you would like to be treated yourself generally is a good way to go, although it's certainly not all-inclusive and you also have to try to take into account things that you know about them (or the possibility of things that you may not know) which might result in them wanting to be treated in quite a different way in certain situations. But when it comes to the very core of how to treat people, it works: people don't want to suffer, just like you. People want to be happy, just like you. You don't even have to fully understand it to have at least some level of compassion (although it helps and deepens it to try to understand it as well as is possible for you) but without people having that compassion, we'd live in a very unpleasant world, much more so than it is now.

There are a few different ways it's possible to look at it. One is that of each person, each life being a story. And being born into your body and living in it (with all the personality traits, identity and such which are tied intricately in with your physiology -- your brain -- and your particular experiences to life) is just like reading a book or watching a movie from beginning to end, except unedited and with the choice to change how the story goes by consciously engaging with and directing it in different ways.

You could just as easily have picked up another book (who knows? I don't know if there is such a thing as reincarnation, but there are some who quite literally believe that you will eventually experience being every being in this universe, in which case it would pay to be kind to others in the most literal sense. Even if this is not the case, though, it still pays in another way.) Generally good people want all those books they come across to be as free of pain and horror as possible, and full of some joy -- granted, people tend to be particularly invested in their own books, but it sometimes helps to try to be less so, both in terms of making others and oneself happier.

Sorry if this is difficult to understand. But believe me, if you can spend some time considering it and understanding it at least a little more, it is worth it. If only as a theory, if you cannot feel it. Even if we are all tools, even if we are all emotionless and suffering and joy are only settings, it's in all of our best interests to treat each other as well as possible (in which doing our best to understand others is instrumental, even if we cannot do so perfectly) -- we can build better things, be of more use, and get to much better places.

Last edited by sparrowblue on 06 Apr 2015, 8:32 am, edited 2 times in total.