人类起源问题是人类存在的终极问题之一，对其研究会触及很多哲学问题。本文以近年来古人类学和生物学研究中的进展为基础，简要概述了人类起源和演化的大历史，对人类存在的本质、人类存在的目的和意义、神创与演化、人类起源和演化的推动力、劳动的性质和作用、偶然性和必然性等方面的哲学问题进行了讨论。从灵长类起源开始算起，人类演化至少有5600万年的历史，如果从演化生物学意义上的人猿分异算起，也有700~800万年的历史。人类作为一类生物有机体，作为人类主观世界的承载体，人类存在的本质一直是一个非常复杂的话题，甚至不可能有一个被大多数人认可的答案。从生物学角度来看，人类的存在本质上即是自然的存在，人类既是自然的一部分，又在很大程度上影响自然的存在。人类不同于其他灵长类动物的特征，即是人类在生物学意义上的本质特征。在人类起源研究中，应该从生物学各个分支学科的不同角度对人类存在的本质加以研究。哲学层面上人类存在的目的和意义，都不是科学问题，不存在科学研究上的检验标准。如果说人类的存在有目的和意义，那么这个目的和意义就是“存在”。虽然传统的神创论已经不再是人类知识体系中的主要部分，但是以智能设计论为代表的思想，仍然在试图回答超自然力量和智慧事物是否发生和发生的原因。人类作为一种生物，其自身的起源与发展与其他生物并没有本质的差别，驱使人类演化的动力是内在的遗传因素与外在的环境因素共同作用的结果。关于“劳动”在人类起源和演化过程中的作用，曾有过激烈的讨论。从现代古生物学、考古学、动物学、行为学、生态学等学科的实证出发，无法给“劳动”下一个准确的定义。我们可以认为，人类的劳动本身就是人类在生存和繁衍过程中表现出的一种行为状态。对偶然事件的积累加以记录，即得到量变的过程，当量变积累到可识别出秩序和层级的程度，就可以把这个变化定义为质变。人类演化过程中的质变，也是在无数偶然性变化积累到可定义的程度才出现的。自我意识和思维，不是人类所特有的。宇宙中复杂系统发展出可以思维的能力是物质发展的必然，但是具体以何种形式出现在哪种事物中，则受偶然因素的控制。

The question of human origins is one of the ultimate questions of human existence, and the study of human origins touches on many philosophical issues. Based on recent advances in paleoanthropology and biology, this paper briefly reviews the history of human origins and evolution, and discusses philosophical issues such as the nature of being, the purpose and meaning of human existence, divine creation and evolution, the driving force of human origins and evolution, the nature and role of labor, and contingency and necessity. Counting from the origin of primates, human evolution has a history of at least 56 million years, or 7-8 million years if we count from the human-ape divergence in the sense of evolutionary biology. As a class of biological organisms and the bearer of the subjective world, the nature of being has always been a very complex subject, and it is even impossible for most people to have a recognized answer. From a biological point of view, human existence is essentially the existence of nature. Human beings are a part of the nature and greatly influence the existence of the nature. The characteristics of human beings that distinguish them from primates are the essential characteristics of human beings in the biological sense. In the study of human origins, the question of the nature of being should be examined from different angles of the various sub-disciplines of biology. The purpose and meaning of human existence at the philosophical level are not scientific questions, and the test standards of scientific research can not be applied to it. If human existence has a purpose and meaning, then that purpose and meaning is “existence”. Although traditional creationism is no longer a major part of the human knowledge system, the ideas represented by intelligent design still attempt to answer the questions of whether or not supernatural forces and intelligent things exist, and why they exist. As a living creature, the origin and development of human beings are not fundamentally different from those of other living creatures, and the driving force of human evolution is the result of a combination of intrinsic genetic factors and extrinsic environmental factors. There have been heated discussions about the role of “labor” in the origin and evolution of human beings, but from the empirical evidence of modern paleontology, archaeology, zoology, behavior, ecology, and other disciplines, it is impossible to give an accurate definition of “labor”. It can be argued that human labor itself is a state of behavior exhibited by humans in the process of survival and reproduction. The accumulation of contingent events is recorded, that is, the process of obtaining a quantitative change, and when the quantitative change accumulates to a level where order and hierarchy can be recognized, the change can be defined as qualitative change. Qualitative change in human evolution also occurs when the accumulation of countless contingent changes reaches a definable level. Self-awareness and thinking are not unique to humans. The development of complex systems in the universe with the ability to think is a necessity of material development, but the exact form in which it appears in things is controlled by chance.