HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF HUMAN NATURE

 

by: Manuel M. Alambalang and Angeli J. Alambalang

        https://youtu.be/AxDyKeXbHbg 

       It is good to give importance to history, as the adage says, "History repeats itself". Knowing the history of human nature will be helpful in understanding human relations.

     The Webster’s Dictionary definition of human nature is “the essential essence of who we are collectively as human beings.” This means the traits, behaviors, and characteristics essential to what it is to be a human being as a matter of natural (usually biological) fact and which cannot be changed without making us other than the sort of being we are. Someone might also add that it is the hardwired structures that are innate in our biology. Some people might have a broader definition of human nature and say that everything humans do is in our nature. Love is in our nature, hate is in our nature. War is in our nature. Peace is in our nature. Reflection is certainly in our nature. Lions can't reflect on whether to go vegetarian, and pandas can’t decide to drop bamboo in favor of small rodents. If reflection is in our nature, then so is choice about our actions. And moralists assert that awareness, reflection, and choice are where morality lies.

        There are many theories can be mentioned in studying the history of human nature. Firstly by early modernists such as Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In the early 19th century, such thinkers as Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Sartre, as well as structuralists and postmodernists more generally, have also sometimes argued against a fixed or innate human nature.

        While it is challenging to explore the subject of human nature, it becomes a necessity in our times due to the misuse of the concept to promote a fatalistic and defeatist outlook that prevents people from evolving morally. Human beings are much more than merely “self-centered, aggressive, and competitive”. Recent tendencies to misuse the concept of human nature prove what American philosopher Henry Miller said “Man has demonstrated he is master of everything -- except his own nature.”