Does human nature exist?
01/09/08 20:35 Filed in: Philosophy | Human Nature
I’m through with writing social critiques right now. I’m done with determinism too, saying that we are all such weak injured souls because this or that power elite causes us to be so.
I’ve been thinking about change: What we would need to do in order to make the world a better place to live in.
In looking at social and political philosophy there is one question on which all this stuff seems to hinge. I’m not entirely sure that I believe the question in a way, but it’s about the state of human nature itself and what of us is innately human.
So what is human nature? Do humans seek autonomy, freedom and is their nature predisposed towards moral good, an innate desire for a better world or is that some philosopher’s intellectual desire? There are many theories of human nature that appear so ethnocentrically and culturally biased that I would dismiss them out of hand.
Inevitably theories of human nature tend to be predicated on individualist ideas coming from a liberal tradition. I’m not sure if they go anywhere, nor do right or left political views. The left takes us towards the authoritarian state more often than not and these days, the right veers towards laissez faire capitalism that is laissez faire so long as they control it. Free market competition produces winners and losers, and often the winners are the same and there are an awful lot of losers out there. The further left or right one seems to go, the more likely one is to end up with totalitarianism.
But my question is about people. Is there really such a thing as human nature, OR do we live within a consciousness that contains moral values that change and shift as our collective consciousness develops? Development can be disjointed, fractured by revolution and not conform to any Darwinist evolutionary notion. Consciousness may sustain badness as well as good, but I believe that the underlying desire of consciousness is towards social improvement fuelled by humankind’s desire to survive and little more. Survival, like hunger, is a strong natural instinct.
The marketing guys, the media, advertising, and the world of politics know all about consciousness. Their aim is frequently to manipulate it to their own ends or those of their controlling shareholders.
The question of human nature has dogged philosophical, social and political thought forever, but what do you believe? Does it really exist?
I’ve been thinking about change: What we would need to do in order to make the world a better place to live in.
In looking at social and political philosophy there is one question on which all this stuff seems to hinge. I’m not entirely sure that I believe the question in a way, but it’s about the state of human nature itself and what of us is innately human.
So what is human nature? Do humans seek autonomy, freedom and is their nature predisposed towards moral good, an innate desire for a better world or is that some philosopher’s intellectual desire? There are many theories of human nature that appear so ethnocentrically and culturally biased that I would dismiss them out of hand.
Inevitably theories of human nature tend to be predicated on individualist ideas coming from a liberal tradition. I’m not sure if they go anywhere, nor do right or left political views. The left takes us towards the authoritarian state more often than not and these days, the right veers towards laissez faire capitalism that is laissez faire so long as they control it. Free market competition produces winners and losers, and often the winners are the same and there are an awful lot of losers out there. The further left or right one seems to go, the more likely one is to end up with totalitarianism.
But my question is about people. Is there really such a thing as human nature, OR do we live within a consciousness that contains moral values that change and shift as our collective consciousness develops? Development can be disjointed, fractured by revolution and not conform to any Darwinist evolutionary notion. Consciousness may sustain badness as well as good, but I believe that the underlying desire of consciousness is towards social improvement fuelled by humankind’s desire to survive and little more. Survival, like hunger, is a strong natural instinct.
The marketing guys, the media, advertising, and the world of politics know all about consciousness. Their aim is frequently to manipulate it to their own ends or those of their controlling shareholders.
The question of human nature has dogged philosophical, social and political thought forever, but what do you believe? Does it really exist?
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