Human nature
The concept of nature as a standard by which to make judgments is traditionally said to have begun in Greek philosophy, at least in regard to its heavy influence on Western and Middle Eastern languages and perspectives.
Against Aristotle's notion of a fixed human nature, the relative malleability of man has been argued especially strongly in recent centuries—firstly by early modernists such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
"[10] Since the early 19th century, such thinkers as Darwin, Freud, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Sartre, as well as structuralists and postmodernists more generally, have also sometimes argued against a fixed or innate human nature.
[28] Mencius considers core virtues—benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom—as internal qualities that humans originally possess, so people can not attain full satisfaction by solely pursuits of self-interest due to their innate morality.
[37] There is a perpetual political struggle, characterized by conflict among contending human actors and interests, where individuals are easily tempted due to their selfish nature at the expense of others.
[35] Instead, Legalist thinkers such as Han Fei emphasize clear and impersonal norms and standards (such as laws, regulations, and rules) as the basis to maintain order.
[35] In contrast, a political system based on trust and respect (rather than impersonal norms and standards) brings great concern with regard to an ongoing and irresolvable power struggle.
[36] For instance, according to the Legalist statesman Shang Yang, it is crucial to investigate the disposition of people in terms of rewards and penalties when a law is established.
This understanding of the human being enjoyed immense success in the 12th century when authors as different as Bernardus Silvestris and Godfrey of Saint Victor made use of it.
The problem of the relation between the Soul and the body which was implicitly contained in this definition, gave rise to very important debates after the arrival of Aristotle in the West and the Translation of Greek and Arabic philosophical texts.
The dualist position whose cause was brilliantly defended by Bonaventure stated that man was composed of two substances, the soul being joined to the body “as mover”.
An astonishing expression of it appears in John Scotus Eriugena’s De divisione naturae (book IV) where it is said of man that “his substance is the notion by which he knows himself” (PL, 122, 770A).
This optimism contrasts with the perspectives sketched out by Lotario dei Segni, the future Pope Innocent III, in the opusculum De Miseria Condicionis Humane (1195–119) which offers a striking picture of man's weaknesses and infirmities.
When in 1452 Giannozzo Manetti eulogized the beauty and excellence of man, body and Soul, he wished to reply to the lamentation of Innocent, whose work had an immense success.
But you, whom no boundary limits, by your own free will, in whose hands I have placed you, define yourself.” This anthropology, which has been celebrated as the beginning of modernity, is not in opposition to religion since this dignity of man belongs to him precisely because he is the image of God according to the biblical word.
Empirical discussion questioning the genetic exclusivity of such an intrinsic badness proposition is presented by researchers Elliott Sober and David Sloan Wilson.
In their book, Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior, they propose a theory of multilevel group selection in support of an inherent genetic "altruism" in opposition to the original sin exclusivity for human nature.
Although this new realism applied to the study of human life from the beginning—for example, in Machiavelli's works—the definitive argument for the final rejection of Aristotle was associated especially with Francis Bacon.
The efficient and the material (as they are investigated and received, that is, as remote causes, without reference to the latent process leading to the form) are but slight and superficial, and contribute little, if anything, to true and active science.
Thomas Hobbes, then Giambattista Vico, and David Hume all claimed to be the first to properly use a modern Baconian scientific approach to human things.
He also very influentially described man's natural state (without science and artifice) as one where life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short".
He shocked Western civilization with his Second Discourse by proposing that humans had once been solitary animals, without reason or language or communities, and had developed these things due to accidents of pre-history.
Hume—like Rousseau—was controversial in his own time for his modernist approach, following the example of Bacon and Hobbes, of avoiding consideration of metaphysical explanations for any type of cause and effect.
Rousseau's proposal that human nature is malleable became a major influence upon international revolutionary movements of various kinds, while Hume's approach has been more typical in Anglo-Saxon countries, including the United States.
[91] Several contemporary philosophers have attempted to defend the notion of human nature against charges that it is incompatible with modern evolutionary biology by proposing alternative interpretations.
[95] He distinguishes between two different notions: Machery clarifies that, to count as being "a result of evolution", a property must have an ultimate explanation in Ernst Mayr's sense.
Examples of properties that count as parts of human nature on the nomological definition include: being bipedal, having the capacity to speak, having a tendency towards biparental investment in children, having fear reactions to unexpected noises.
He highlights the importance of a conception which picks out what humans share in common which can be used to make scientific, psychological generalizations about human-beings.
In this light, the female menstrual cycle which is a biologically an essential and useful feature cannot be included in a nomological account of human nature.
Hereditarianism is the research program according to which heredity plays a central role in determining human nature and character traits, such as intelligence and personality.
