Nicholas Barnard PHL399: Other People 1/27/03
Humans are and historically have been social creatures. This is not to assert that humans are unable to live outside of a social system, many of us just do not choose to.
The most reasonable explanations for our need for other people lies in evolution and within human developmental patterns.
Human beings are unable live on their own for the first six to ten years of life, depending on environment and the specific individual. Even beyond this, humans are ill equipped in today's society to be fully independent from their parents until they have reached their mid to late 20's. This of course varies by individual but in general independence from parents is something that is fully realized until the mid-twenties for an average person.
Ergo, a person spends over a quarter to a third of their life dependent on their parents. Even beyond parental dependence many people grow out of dependence of their parents and into being dependent on their friends and those around them. Thus, humans grow into existing and depending on other people, and most people do not attempt to change something that they do not find fault with.
The people who choose to live without other people, tend to be philosophers in search of determining how and if they can live without others, their reasons for not living with others and needing others is an experiment.
Evolutionarily the reasons for needing other people are simple, those who did not tend to exist and want to live in communities of humans were less likely to survive or reproduce both because of a lack of potential mates, of mutual protection from predators, food gathering cooperation, care for each other when ill, and care for offspring.