Wednesday, August 28, 2013
The Nature of "Human Nature"
After watching a video on Gilgamesh and answering questions, we had a very thoughtful and wide-ranging critical conversation about the purpose of history, the nature of mortality and its effects on how we think about history and life, and even how we and various groups throughout history have defined what it means to be human and to engage in a narrative about history. We previewed some ideas from Aristotle (4th century Greek) and Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (16th-18th Century English and French thinkers) and then connected them to some of these "big" questions. Well done on exploring the WHY behind all of these facts and using history to enrich and explore questions that thinkers have been exploring throughout history -- and that we still have today.
So, the question for tonight related very much to our conversation today: Are we 1) "blank slates" when we are born with the potential to develop into moral or immoral individuals (part of Julia and Pen's argument), or 2) are we born inherently innocent (part of Pearl's position) and fated to become more immoral as we grow older, or 3) are we born only concerned about self-interest and naturally inclined to live in war against all for our own survival and success? (part of Sam's statements) Clearly, we don't expect you to solve such a BIG question and it is very difficult, but, given your discussion today, we know that you are fully ready to offer some short reflection on these ideas. In short, what do you believe about "human nature"? Please respond in 7-10 thoughtful sentences and explain why you believe what you do.
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I think we are innocent when we are born because we aren't born with prejudices or preferences. As we get older we learn a lot of very helpful things and shape our values from our knowledge. The thing about this is that people are always biased and teach others, consciously and unconsciously, their views and opinions through what they say and do. Kids are really curious but they also don't know to take stuff they are told with a grain of salt. This causes them to be shaped to make their own views but also have views of others.
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ReplyDeleteI believe as a child you are pure. There’s no experience with life that you actually have coming out of your mothers belly. With no experience and ted yet. As children grow there purity begins to diminish through time and experience of life. Children tend to adapt to what they know as they grow. The settings, traditions, and cultural that surrounds them growing end up forming, morphing and developing the child into good or bad. However, I don’t understand how you can exactly pin point what good or bad is. In our society we have formed what we believe is good or bad but in another society there scale of good or bad could be completely different.
When born, a child is pure. We are synonymous to an piece of clay that has not been touched by the good or bad hand. As we grow, many things can sculpt our future and who we turn out to be. It depends on- as Felicia also said- your setting, tradition, and culture. Human nature is summed up to be "the behavioral traits of human kind." This is unique for each individual. Each individual creates their own personality by the things that they learn and observe in their past. For instance, we learn from our own mistakes; Mistakes shape us. We find out what we should have done better and what we will do next time.
ReplyDeleteI believe we are "blank slates" when we are born. We have no inclinations toward good nor evil. As we grow up we gain experience from the outside world, as well as learn about ourselves. Through this we have the a ability to formulate our own opinions, thoughts, and (although it its not quite so simple as this) our inclinations a towards good or evil. Our experiences are what truly shape us. Culture and civilization can be seen for the bad qualities, yet we forget to look for the good qualities as well (this somewhat links to what we discussed with the first question on Humbaba). There is both good and bad in civilization and I feel if we look hard enough we can find both. For example, this blog we are using now. This would not be available as learning tool, nor would any of the resources we take for granted today. It all very much stems off of civilization and culture. Without it we would not have nearly so much knowledge, perhaps not even a sense of morality.
ReplyDeleteI believe that we are born with natural instincts to care about ourselves and our own survival before the concerns of anybody else. This is how many animals live and this is how our ancestors lived before language and other ways of bonding were invented. Sure someone may hold bonds with another person, but i believe that these bonds are inferior to our instincts for our own well being. This theory also explains our fight or flight instincts. Everybody can see that to run away from a threat is in ones instincts of well being. They may attempt to take someone else with them, but that is only because we try to protect our loved ones to if possible after we have secured safety for ourselves. Also, to fight a threat is in ones well being. This is because when running away you always know the threat could still be out there, but when fighting you aren't doing it for others more than you're doing it for yourself. Once you have defeated the threat (assuming you have) you have secure your own safety. A common counter-argument to the idea that our instincts dictate our actions in stressful times would be "Why are others willing to die for a loved one?" The answer to this argument goes down to fight or flight instincts. Where again no matter what happens your instincts will tell you what to do. I believe that during stressful situations, humans rely on their instincts to tell them what to do in the situation that will best insure survival in their mind. Even if death will happen if you fight but don't run, your instinct of fight will tell you to fight because your inner core as a human believes that.
ReplyDeleteI believe that when we are born we hold in our hands the potential to be either good or evil. I am not saying that anyone actually knows what good or evil is. It is an idea that is put in our head by the people who teach us our culture and everything that we know about the world. It is also taught to us through religion and some strive more than others to be the ideal pure human. In the discussion today in class we also talked about humans tend to judge each other, saying that the culture that is not theirs Is barbaric or evil. When in reality the other culture just might be striving to be their idea of good or ideal as they can be. I do not believe that any of us can decide weather we are good or evil though we can comfort ourselves by saying that we are. It is also like our idea of death, of heaven and hell. Who knows this might actually be all an illusion we may already be living in hell, who can tell us otherwise?
ReplyDeleteI believe all humans are born as blank slates, with the ability to become more moral, or immoral as their life progresses. The surrounding environment and society that people live in should have no effect on who they are as people. The weak choose to be shaped by society and the people that have influenced them. But the strong will always believe in themselves, not necessarily making them selfish, but making them confident and willing. People who believe in themselves as human beings and make their imagination reality, are almost always the most successful because when it comes down to it, it's the person who's willing to die that's gonna win the fight. It's the person with a will strong enough that they believe that they can survive through any hardship life throws in his/her path. A person is only as strong as it's own will.
ReplyDeleteI believe that humans are born neither innately good nor innately evil. I'd have to say that they start off as blank slates. Their decisions, their choices ultimately decide their morality/immorality in the future. Juliet said that one does not necessarily have a concept of what is good or evil. I would sort of agree with that. Most humans do not have this innate sense of what is ethically valid and what is not. It is taught to us through our parents, our peers, our religion (for those who might believe in a higher power). We do not have this built-in system inside of us that goes off every time we do something right or wrong. We are taught ethics by others. Who have learned it from their parents or others. And it goes on and on. Some of us are influenced by others, but some of us have the willpower to not conform to the ideals of our modern age society. And this is why I say that humans start off with a clean slate. How does this ending make sense? I don't know either.
ReplyDeleteI believe that when are born we have innocence in the sense that we have done nothing wrong and know nothing, but we also have the natural human instinct to survive, fight for our selves, because without this we would not defend ourselves or cry when we are hurt or need help. But even though we are born with both of these traits we still are born with a blank tablet. A blank tablet that lets us decide what our personality and actions will be. You can keep your innocence or embrace your instinct to survive and ignore all others. This blank slate and both of these natural instincts are what make human nature so unique to animal natures. Animals undoubtedly have innocence and the natural instinct to survive but are they capable of starting with or having this blank slate, can they decide whether to survive and only think for them selves or be innocent. They do both, while we typically chose one.
ReplyDeleteI believe that we are all blank slates. I think that everyone has the ability to be who they want to be and live their lives how they want to. I don't think it is predetermined whether or not you use your life to do moral or immoral things. You begin to live your life, and as you experience life-encounters, you begin to choose what kind of person you want to be. Also, people do immoral things out of revenge a lot of times, and if the event that made you want revenge didn't occur, you wouldn't do the immoral thing. So therefore, you base your morals around your experiences and thoughts. You start with a blank slate, and it accumulates, which leads to your actions.
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I believe that we are, in a sense, blank slates when we are born. If we are were allowed to mature outside of civilization, I think that we would not be moral or immoral in the sense that we would have no morals at all. Humans are as animal as any other being that lives on this planet. The only thing that separates us from the other animals is, as you can probably guess, intelligence. We have used this intelligence (over thousands of years) to create rules that help us live together successfully. We call these rules morals. These morals are arbitrary. The only thing that they have to do is to keep society from falling apart. At the moment they do this fairly well. However, It does not matter how they do this. If your morals were replaced with a totally different set of rules in which killing was a fine and good thing to do, you would probably kill weekly and think nothing of it. This is because you would have been conditioned by society to follow these moral rules and to think that you would have made any and every attempt to live by them no matter where or how or when you were born. You think that morals (like instincts) are innate. You would not have made any attempt to follow moral rules if they were not taught to you. The only thing that humans do naturally is to survive. That is the only thing that any life form on this planet does naturally. If you think that that is all wrong, and that you definitely would have followed moral rules even if no one had told you what they were, here is something that will prove it. Look at all the different religions and forms of government around the world. You probably don’t agree with that many of them. Some of them may seem morally wrong. Here is something to think about. The only reason these religious and governmental systems exist is because someone (or a large number of people) believe that they are right. They have been conditioned to believe that they are right just as you have been conditioned to think that your religion and your government are the best one and the right one. Morality is a construct that helps to keep the gears of society running smoothly, but it is not really real. Morals only make sense because you know that they are true because if they weren’t true, nothing would be.
ReplyDeleteI believe both that humans are born as blank slates but that we also do have a natural instinct to survive, and I also do believe that humans may be born innocent. When somebody is born, they have their whole life ahead of them, no matter how long that life may last. I do not believe that a person is born good or evil (as Juliet was saying) but will simply learn as life goes on. That person may develop his own ideas of good and bad, and choose to act through his or her own morals. But who is to say what’s right or wrong? I do believe that one’s morals may be obtained by observation or by being taught them. But those morals may only pertain to that specific person; so many other peoples’ morals are different from that one person’s. I also agree with Pavan when he said that peoples’ decisions might determine their morals. (This reminds me a little of that saying ‘10% of a situation is what actually happened and 90% is how we reacted to it’). If we have a situation and two different people react to it in two completely different ways, you are going to have two entirely unique results. (Does that relate?) I also believe that humans also have a natural inclination to survive. And I also agree with Sam when he said that ‘the only thing humans do naturally is to survive’. If you are alone and dying, you are most likely going to do all that you can to save yourself from that ‘horrible fate’. And I do believe that this can affect what morals one may have. If somebody has to survive with very little resources, they cannot afford to be picky; their morals are bound to be different from another person who may have lived comfortably all of their lives. I guess what I mean is that your morals are also affected by your history…if that makes sense. As for innocence, I believe that it kind of goes hand-in-hand with the blank slate. You may be innocent up until a certain point, but when you learn about the ‘reality’ of life, your innocence may be gone.
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