This enormous question of what it is to be human must be answered on two levels because there are two levels of our existance; material and idealistic. What we are materially can be examined with scientific process, what we are beyond that must be approached metaphysically. The two are inseparable because it is the physical that frames the foundation of thought. Mind is not physical but mind cannot exist without physical brain (in my opinion).

Now then we are left with another question, how can the metaphysical mind explain itself? The natural course would be to examine our behavior to shed light on what obviously originates somewhere in our minds or brains. We are not our actions, so any judgments about what we are based on our actions can only be a useful inference of what we are. Examining behavior seems like a quagmire of subjective determinations. I'm not sure mind can ever determine what it is.

The simple answer is that we are both mind and body united and inseparable. I realize that theists will have a problem with this statement but what happens to our mind after death is another thread.

Yes De Silentio, we would like to hear of your excersise however humble it is.

Why must the mind be so rigid? We have a lot of plasticity and adaptability, and it's likely that various patterns will similarly trigger very basic processes in different people.

No offence but, I wonder how much of what you mean by 'rigidity' could be ideological and how much philosophical. The assertion of an intellectual principle or a rational ideal would certainly place limits upon the legitimacy of subjective human opinions. And if one were to be desirable of simply the largest quantity of opinion without regard to their ultimate worth, then I would agree that such principles and ideals would militate against such an outcome. But it seems that one will pay for the indiscriminate plurality by receiving a diminished view of the nature of reality itself, whose view can only be obtained by an appeal to philosophical principles of reason.

Inidividual things do not go on endlessly in the human mind without leaving us eventually blinded and spinning in the head, as it were. Each measurable moment of 'being' that the human brain feels cannot be so different from each other as to deprive us the ability to understand them. And such logical classification of recurring elements as they appear in the world should point us to such principles that are, as principles, seperate from the reality of which they serve to deliver to us a clear understanding. These are the principles of basic reasoning.

But, in my opinion, everyone (including academic philosophy professors) is now in the habit of classifying speculative philosophy i.e. metaphysics, as being the same thing as, let us say, some sort of intellectualized Christian theology, and therefore apply such political and social pressure, with their concomitant guilt and shame, as to ensure that we all remain blind and irrational. They have already succeeded to a large extent. This is an ideological mission and not a genuine philosophical conversation.

My conclusion: metaphysics is intellectually incorrect therefore being human is intellectually incorrect.

Funny how human tries to define human.
Guess your simply acting human.
True to say logic vs emotions , but is it where the answer lies?
is it because we reason that we are human ? is it because we feel ?
I think what makes a human different is fact that we do CHOOSE.