HUMAN NATURE

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 446.

Human nature refers to the essential and immutable character of all human beings. It highlights what is innate and ‘natural' about human life, as opposed to what human beings have gained from education or through social experience. This does not, however, mean that those who believe that human behaviour is shaped more by society than it is by unchanging and inborn characteristics have abandoned the idea of human nature. Rather, such a view makes clear assumptions about innate human qualities; in this case, the capacity to be shaped or moulded by external factors. Moreover, a concept of human nature does not reduce human life to a one dimensional caricature. Most political thinkers are aware that human beings are complex, multi-faceted creatures, made up of biological, physical, psychological, intellectual, social and perhaps spiritual elements. The concept of human nature does not conceal or overlook this complexity so much as attempt to impose order upon it by designating certain features as natural or ‘essential'. Although this human ‘core' will usually be manifest in human behaviour, this is not necessarily the case. Human beings may, for instance, be encouraged to deny their ‘true' natures through the influence of a corrupt society.

Significance

Almost all political doctrines and beliefs are based upon some kind of theory of human nature, sometimes explicitly formulated but in many cases simply implied. Assumptions about the content of human nature structure political enquiry in a number of important ways. The most obvious of these is the so-called ‘nurture/ nature' debate, the question of whether the essential core of human nature is fixed or given, fashioned by ‘nature', or whether it is moulded or structured through social experience or ‘nurture'. An emphasis upon nature, as adopted, for instance, by most liberals and conservatives, suggests that the individual is the key to the understanding of society: social and political life ultimately reflect characteristics and behavioural patterns that are innate within each human being. This is evident in methodological *individualism. On the other hand, nurture theorists, including most socialists, communists and anarchists, argue that as human nature is ‘plastic', the human character and sensibilities can be developed through the reconstruction of society. In this case, society provides the key to the understanding of the individual.

Another important debate about human nature centres upon the relative importance of competition and cooperation. Much of liberal *ideology and many of the ideas of conventional social and *political science reflect assumptions about self-seeking and egotistical human behaviour. If human beings are essentially greedy and competitive, a capitalist economic system is natural and inevitable. However, socialists have traditionally stressed that human beings are naturally sociable, cooperative and gregarious, motivated by altruism and a sense of social responsibility. From this perspective, *capitalism merely serves to corrupt human nature by suppressing our inclination towards collective human endeavour and *equality. Only a limited number of political thinkers have openly rejected the idea of human nature. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80), however, argued that ‘existence comes before essence', meaning that human beings enjoy the *freedom to define themselves through their own actions and deeds. If this is so, the assertion of any concept of human nature is an affront to that freedom.