Video #2 – What is Human Nature?
Viewers Guide – P1010
I. The Greek Rationalist View of Man
1.
In 4th century B.C. Athens the philosopher Plato tried to define the basic parts of __HUMAN
__ __NATURE_. “Let me speak briefly about the nature of the __SOUL_ by using an image
and let the image have three parts -- a pair of winged horses and a charioteer. One of the
horses is of noble breed, the other ignoble, and the charioteer controls them with great
difficulty….”
2.
Plato thinks a human being is essentially the soul, the body is more something the soul resides
in and he considers the soul to be composed of three parts: 1) the _RATIONAL_ part, 2) the _
__EMOTIONAL__ or spirited part which feels anger, and the appetitive part which gives us
our basic appetites – food and drink and sex.
3.
Human _EXCELLENCE__ is to be achieved where these three parts work together efficiently
and cooperatively. Plato says that only happens if the rational part rules the soul.
4.
Aristotle basically agreed with Plato but took a broader view and asked how humans fit into
__NATURE_ as a whole. Aristotle suggested that everything has its own __UNIQUE__
purpose, or its telos.
5.
Aristotle” “Our biological purpose we share in common even with with plants so these cannot
be the purpose or _FUNCTION__ of man since we are looking for something specific to
man…. so there remains only the activities that belong to the _RATIONAL__ part of man.
The specific purpose or function of man involves the activities of that part of his soul that
belongs to reason.”
6.
The basic strategy of Aristotle’s for __EXPLAINING__ the world is --The rain falls so that
the plants can grow. The world is a system of __INTERLOCKING_ purposes. The rain falls
because if there were no rain, the plants would dry up die. Why are their plants? Plants
provide food for the animals. Why are there animals? The animals provide food and clothing
for us. Why do we exist? The specific purpose or function of man involves the activities of
that part of his soul that belongs to reason.
7. The _MENTAL__ abilities are just so different in kind than anything you see in nature and
thus must account for the purpose of man.
II. The Judea-Christian Rationalist View of Man
1.
The belief that humans are superior to animals is also central to the Judea-Christian tradition.
“God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind, and every living thing
that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and God saw that it was good. And God said ‘Let us
make man in our __IMAGE__, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth.’ ”
2.
Early Christians took Plato’s view of reason in man as “god-like” or as the _DIVINE__ aspect of
our nature and rolled them into the Christian understanding of human nature based on the Book of
Genesis passage.
3.
Other important dimensions of human nature are revealed in the story of the _FALL__ also in
Genesis. In this, early Christianity believes that there are within us marks of punishment from
God or what is known as _ORIGINAL__ sin. This idea is closely tied to another aspect of human
nature – free will.
4.
In Plato and Aristotle, you do see some discussions of _CHOICE_, but you do not see __WILL__
getting the central place in human nature that it acquires with Christianity.
5.
In Plato, reason must struggle to control our passions and appetites. In the Christian tradition,
spirit wars with __FLESH__ to control our free will.
6.
St. Augustine emphasized the depth of _EVIL__ in human nature…. He argued that man commits
_SIN__ for the pure sake of doing evil.
7.
Aristotle’s writings were translated into Latin in the 13 th century and thus began to be widely read.
St. Thomas Aquinas agreed with Aristotle that our human nature was defined by our special
purpose or __GOAL____. Aquinas added to the picture that was not present in Aristotle was the
notion was that this goal was put there by God, a creator God, who makes things and
___DESIGNS___ things in such a way as to be oriented to the goal that He has.
8.
Aquinas: “….So humans are the purpose of the whole order of generation. Now humans naturally
desire as their ultimate purpose to know the __FIRST___ cause of things. But the first cause of all
things is God, so the ultimate purpose of humans is to __KNOW__ __GOD___.”
III. Problems With The Rationalist View
1.
Feminists argue that reason is often seen as a __MASCULINE__ trait. Women are seen as
creatures of emotion or worse yet, symbols of the temptation of the flesh.
2.
Plato’s story of the charioteer gives rise to an implied authoritarian politics in which a ruling class
(“the rational part”) could _____ENSLAVE___ other citizens. Aristotle actually went so far as
even to believe that women were intellectually and ethically inferior to men. Also, he defended
slavery as ___JUST_____.
3.
Charles Darwin forced us to review our views of human nature. He proposed the process of
__NATURAL___ __SELECTION___ or the survival of the fittest. This view denies Aristotle’s
view that human beings were radically ____DIFFERENT__ or special. Against Aristotle,
Darwin was arguing that other animals too are rational to a degree.
4.
In questioning Aristotle’s and Aquinas’ notion of telos or purpose, Darwin gave us a new model of
____EXPLANATION__. Darwin replaced a teleological explanation with a _MECHANICAL__
explanation – a genetic, a DNA one.
5.
Richard Rorty suggests that we should not be looking for a ___UNIVERSAL__ human nature.
The 17th century Blaise Pascal recognized how different __CULTURES_ develop different ideas
about human nature. … His conclusion that “__CUSTOM_ is our nature” is the beginning of the
existentialist view.
6.
The 20th century existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre argues that we become who we are without an
_INNATE_ human nature. Humans do not have a unique essence that can be called human nature,
yet there is a human universality of _CONDITION__. That is, we share the necessity to become
individually human (to make something of ourselves) under similar situations.
Name: _____________________________