1. Views of Human Nature

2. The Selfishness View
Sigmund Freud, Thomas Hobbes and Morritz Schlick believed that humans are basically self-interested

3. Sigmund Freud
“Men are not gentile, friendly creatures wishing for love, who simply defend themselves if they are attacked, but …. A powerful measure of desire for aggressiveness has to be reckoned of their instinctual endowment”
Freud’s view was based on his theory of EGO, ID and SUPEREGO

4. Freud’s Model
ID – the drive to fulfill all desires of a physical nature ; exists in the unconscious
Superego – the conscience ; the opposition to the Id. Also exists on the unconscious level
Ego – the balance between id and superego ; the conscious component of the individual
Conclusion : we are not free …. We are bound by the decisions that our desires decide to throw into our consciousness

5. Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679 , a materialist “Leviathan” his greatest work
Humans are motivated by the anti-social desire for power over others
“… I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power that ceasest only in death.”

6. Morritz Schlick 1882-1936, founder of Logical Positivism
Argued for psychological egoism … human beings are so constituted that they always act out of self interest
Even a seemingly heroic act is performed on the basis of personal gratification

7. The Rationalist View The Rationalist View claims :
Humans have a self, the “I” that exists in the physical body
The self is spiritual and exists after the death of the body
The self is conscious and rational
Sometimes referred to as Dualism

8. Plato BC
Claimed that the human is made up of distinct parts …. Rational “reason,” and non-rational “appetites” and “emotions”
Reason = the human capacity for thinking and reflecting
Appetites = physical desire
Emotion- can be controlled by reason or uncontrolled, depending on habit
It is the battle between reason and appetite that constitutes the life of the individual … when reason wins happiness is achieved

9. Rene Descartes
“I think therefore I am.” … I cannot conceive of myself without thinking
Thinking is part of the essence of the soul
In the rationalist view we see ourselves as reasoning, free, moral beings that have an immaterial soul

10. Western Religious View
According to the Judeo-Christian tradition humans are made in the image and likeness of God
Humans are animated bodies … they have a spark of the divine in them
Their life goal is to love and serve God
Ancient Jews did not subscribe to body : soul dualism of Plato
View shapes the development of Western Civilization …both positively & negatively

11. Creation Narratives Two Creation Narratives in Genesis :
Made in God’s image ; Dominion over creation
Genesis 2:4-2:25
Made from dust ; lonely
Creation is essentially good ! ; humans introduce evil through free choice

12. St. Augustine 354-430 CE Adopted a lot of Plato’s teachings
Believed the immaterial self could control it’s desires (spirit > flesh)
Humans are composed of reason and will which allow us to know the truth about God and choose to love God
Humans are free and responsible for our moral choices
Evil is the product of human refusal to love and serve God

13. The Scientific View
The scientific view claims that human beings and the physical world can be explained through observable physical and chemical phenomina
Charles Darwin ( ) rejects notion that there are qualities that are uniquely human …we have evolved from apes
Associated with “Determinism” … causal laws govern everything in the universe …humans are essentially not free

14. Reductionism
Complex processes like life and thought can be explained completely in terms of simpler physical & chemical processes
….Thomas Hobbes …“For what is the heart but a spring, and the nerves, but so many strings, and the joints but so many wheels”
There is no immaterial mind or soul

15. Behavioralism
A school of psychology associated with B.F. Skinner ( ) that restricts the study of human nature to what can be observed
Human beings are “an assembled organic machine ready to run”
He believed that all human behavior could be predicted based on contingencies of re-inforcement

16. Functionalism D.M. Armstrong 1926-
Holds that mental activities are to be explained in terms of inputs and outputs
Related to the Computer View of Alan Turing ( ) …father of artificial intelligence … if a computer can recreate human consciousness we are essentially computers

17. Existentialism
A 20th century philosophy that denies any essential human nature
Each of us creates our own essence through free action
Key Figures : Jean-Paul Sartre ( ), Soren Kierkegaard ( ), Victor Frankl ( )
“We are our choices” … we are free to make ourselves whatever we want …rejects determinism !

18. The Feminist View
Western Philosophy inherently “sexist” dating back to Plato
For Plato …. Soul/Reason > Desires/Emotions
Aristotle associates Soul/ Reason with the male and Desires/Emotions with the female
This distinction influences Judeo-Christian tradition

19. The No-Self View
The no-self view is based on the notion that the individual self does not exist and that the delusion that it does is the source of all pain and suffering

20. Siddhartha Gautama a.k.a. “The Buddha” 563-483 B.C.
Did not believe in the self or the existence of a soul because …
All things are aggregates composed of elements that inevitably change over time
The universe is in a constant state of flux – since nothing is permanent, a “self” cannot be permanent
The idea of a self is evidence of the “mind clouded over by impure desires … that stubbornly insists in thinking “me” and mine

21. David Hume
We are a bundle of perceptions with our inner experience being one of flux and change
Genuine knowledge depends on sensory experience
Since we cannot perceive a “self” it is not real