What is it to be a Person What Am I What Makes A Human Key Questions How are we different from other species What are humans like What does it mean to be human What are the characteristics in order to be human ID: 434684
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Slide1
Human Nature
What is it to be a Person?
What Am I?Slide2
What Makes A Human?
Slide3
Key Questions
How are
we
different from other species?What are humans like?
What
does it mean to be human?
What
are the characteristics in order to be human?
Why
do people act as they do?
What
motivates human actions
?Slide4
Spare Some Change
Imagine
walking down the street on a
wintry
day and seeing an old, unshaven man with a sign in front of him that says,
“
I am blind and deaf. Please help
me.
”
What do you do? Why? Why not?Slide5
Motivation
Are human beings ultimately motivated by self-interested desires?
Is self-interest an inescapable part of being human?
Or are we at least sometimes unselfish?Slide6
The Sides of the Spectrum
Charity? Donations? Help & Care?
Egoism Altruism
– ---------------------------------------------------------
–
Egoism: Self Interest
Altruism: SelflessnessSlide7
Manipulations: 6
Nonrational
Norms
People
’
s choices can be manipulated by appealing to six
nonrational
norms or rules that we generally follow:
Reciprocity
: I should do this for you because you did something for me
Commitment and Consistency
: I should do this because it is consistent with something I have already committed myself to doing.Slide8
Manipulations Cont’d
Liking
: I should do this because I know and like you.
Authority
: I should do this because an authority says I should.
Scarcity
: I should do this because there
’
s only a few chances left and I won
’
t get a chance later
.Slide9
Key ThinkersSlide10
Plato (428 BC – 347 BC)
Ancient Greek Philosopher
Traditional Rationalist:
Reason:
the uniquely human capacity for thinking reflectively and drawing conclusions
.
Tripartite Theory of the Soul:
Reason, Appetite, and SpiritSlide11
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
Ancient Greek Philosopher
Reason is the most important feature of our human nature. Reason is what is unique in humans.
The purpose of human beings is to be rational: to use their reason. To achieve this, reason must control its desires and aggressionsSlide12
Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC)
Ancient Chinese Philosopher
“Man differs from the animal only by a little; most men throw that little away.”
The “Chun-
tzu
” or “Superior Person”
Become the noble character through a life well-lived
Balance, Trail-blazer, DevelopmentSlide13
St. Augustine (354 – 430)
Roman Catholic Philosopher
The City of God
Humans are evil by Vice, not by
Nature
Humans are not capable of doing evil if they truly understand what evil is
.
Original
Sin had tarnished human nature, thus, accept “the good news.” Slide14
Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)
English Philosopher.
Leviathan
“
Human life is nasty, brutish, and short
”
Psychological egoism:
the belief that human beings are so constituted that they must always act out of self-interest
In a State of Nature, Man is EvilSlide15
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778)
Genevan
/French Philosopher that wrote during
the
Enlightenment
Emile/On
Education
Spearheaded
Romanticism
Focus on nurturing the human
Human nature is basically good, but can be corrupted. Slide16
Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)
English Philosopher/Sociologist
On the Origin of Species
The constant struggle for
survival of the fittes
t is what defines ALL life, not just humans
.
Competition
Evolution and Natural SelectionSlide17
Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939)
Austrian Neurologist
Father of Psychoanalysis (“Analysis of the Mind”)
Humans are ruled by the need to seize possessions, humiliate others, cause pain, torture, and kill others
Largely a part of the
unconscious
,
emotions
and
inherit instinct
. Slide18
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 – 1980)
French Philosopher – Existentialist
Existentialism:
H
umans
are whatever they make of themselves.
Individuals
create their own nature through free, responsible choices and actions
.
“Man is free, and everywhere, he is in chains.”
“
We are condemned to
be free
”