What Is Man?

"What Is Man?", first published by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) in 1906, is a dialog between a young man and an older man jaded to the world. It involves ideas of destiny and free will, as well as of psychological egoism. The Old Man asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more. The Young Man objects, and asks him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.