Human Nature: From Kierkegaard to Sartre
Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus talks about Kierkegaard's views of the self and human nature, including such concepts as "present age," "spiritlessness," passionate commitment," and the "aesthetic sphere." He then discusses Heidegger and Sartre, both of ...
What is Human Nature?: Biology's Challenge to Traditional Western View of Human Nature
In the 17th and 18th centuries, scientists are fascinated with collecting specimens and classifying species. However, It will be Charles Darwin who creates a new picture of nature. In the 1830s he travels to the Galapagos Islands to research both li...
What is Human Nature?: How Language Makes Human Life Distinctive
If human nature is not different from the rest of the nature, then why is human existence so different? Language. Language allows humans to organize efforts that require social cooperation, book writing, and the passage of history from generation to...
What is Human Nature?: Plato's View of Human Nature
In 4th century B.C.E. Athens the philosopher Plato tries to define the basic parts of human nature using the metaphor of a charioteer and his pair of winged horses. He believes that a human being is essentially a soul with three parts: the rational ...
What is Human Nature?: Critics of Greek and Christian Views of Human Nature
Greek and Christian ideas of human nature have posed problems. Feminists point out that women are seen as creatures of emotion or symbols of temptations of the flesh because of these historical perceptions. Other critics point out that people in pow...
What is Human Nature?: Judao-Christian Tradition: Free Will, The
In the story of the Fall God punishes Adam and Eve for eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Those marks of punishment became known as original sin and are closely tied to another aspect of human nature, free will. In the Christian tradition spirit may...
What is Human Nature?: Judao-Christian Tradition: Human Superiority Over Animals, The
The belief that humans are superior to animals is central to the Judeo-Christian tradition. As recorded in Genesis, God said, "Let us make man in our image...and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over...
What is Human Nature?: Traditional Greek View of Human Nature, The
Aristotle, Plato's student agreed with his teacher's analysis of human nature. But he took a broader view of how humans fit into nature as a whole. In Aristotle's view everything has its own unique purpose or telos. Biological and sensory purposes a...
What is Human Nature?: St. Thomas Aquinas and Human Nature
Unlike Plato, Aristotle's writings were not translated into Latin and read by Christians until the 13th century. One of the first to pick up his ideas was St. Thomas Aquinas who agreed that human nature is defined by a special purpose or goal. What ...
Changes in Our Conception of Human Nature (Part One)
Philosopher Ian Hacking talks about changes in the way human nature has been viewed over time. From the time of Aristotle through the Enlightenment, human nature was seen as being an essential characteristic of what it is to be human, in which the v...