human nature?

[berlitz23]

Personally, I don't subscribe to this notion or humanist concept of human nature? This 'nature' denotes an absolute, universal equation that ostensibly answers our question on why a select group of humans directed or determined a course in the grand narrative history. Secondly, can we truly say everyone possesses these universal characeteristics that everyone espouses like Love, Hate and Greed? From my standpoint I don't know everyone and from a subjective standpoint our definitions can be subtly or radically different from each others. So my question to you is there such a thing as human nature?

[9]

No, there is no objective human nature. Just as notions of "moral" vs. "immoral" and "right" vs. "wrong" represent different things to different people, so too does the notion of "human nature".

[berlitz23]

Perhaps there is the binary attachment in the human nature argument 'subjective or objective'

[Nwoye]

any possible intrinsic nature of humanity would have to serve as an explanation for every action a human ever undertook. if it did this, then it really explains nothing in particular, making it completely useless.

[mikelepore]

Human nature exists, but the characteristics that most people care about are human individuals' nature, not those of the human species. It's a statistical distribution, possibly a normal bell curve. I don't have the same nature as the serial murderer Charles Manson. He acts a out of his nature, and I act out of mine. People err in arguing about whether human nature is good or evil, without restricting the discussion to specific individuals. It's like asking "How tall are trees? Give me a number."

[New Tet]

Perhaps there is the binary attachment in the human nature argument 'subjective or objective'

Why complicate it so much? Pleeeeeeeeeese! Or like Phistophicles once said: "That's the one that always gives me a headache".

But seriously, in this case the answer is much simpler than the question:

"Human nature" is whatever it is at any given moment.

Our main problem with this answer, of course, is the same as in the story of the elephant and the groping blind men; that 'whatever' is always bound up to our subjective experience and our collective understanding of it is contingent on our capacity to objectively remove ourselves far enough to see the whole elephant without confusing it for the herd.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Yes there is such a thing as human nature... all humans can voluntarily grasp, suck, and burp from birth. Beyond that, it's mostly societal influence.

What happens with "wild children" who have grown up without any other human contact? They have a very low mental capacity because they have never learned speech or social interaction and have had to spend all their time gathering food.

[( R )evolution]

Besides the premises that Gravedigger stated, there is no such thing as human nature. As the OP said in his first post, for something to be of nature then it must be present in all humans. Obviously, greed (and etc) are not present in everyone so thus there is no nature to all of us. But what it reflects is that certain qualities such as greed are present in humans because of the influences of society. In a society where humans are kept down and face the risk of complete destruction with one wrong move or someone always wanting to take your wealth, there will of course be the need to gather as much as possible.

[ev]

Humans have universal characteristics these characteristics are driven by natural human behavior, one natural human behavior is the need to reproduce, thus we humans naturally espouse a sense of love or lust in regard to this.

Whilst I can't really go into the biological complexity and social psychology of human beings, i can assure you that human beings have a natural behavior which is centered around the survival of our species. A lot of our behavior, however, stems from environmental influence as previous comrades have stated.

I support this with this case study below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMbf8R9BPyg&NR=1

This also reinforces that human beings hold different characteristics (which i consider more human) in a communist society than in capitalist society, actually if you look at the culture of the USSR (whilst it was only pseudo-socialistic) in the 1980s compared to that of Russian culture today, it is amazing to see how the westernization or capitalization of their culture has affected the individual, now the Russian national character has changed completely and this will only be more evident when Russia succeeds the US economically with it's natural resources.

It's a shame what the environment (capitalism) can do to a human being..

[anticap]

I don't have the same nature as the serial murderer Charles Manson. He acts a out of his nature, and I act out of mine.

Pet peeve of mine: Manson didn't kill anyone.

Moreover, he's actually quite insightful about this very subject. I don't have links, but if you can find his old interviews, especially the TV ones with Tom Snyder and Geraldo Rivera, he's got plenty to say about being a product of his environment. It's worth the effort really try to understanding where he's coming from (it ain't easy).

I know, I get a lot of rolling eyes when I suggest that America's favorite "monster" (read: scapegoat for the bourgeoisie, who couldn't accept what their children had done) is perhaps not only not a monster (in this particular case), but maybe even someone worth listening to. I've stood by that opinion for a long time and I've seen no reason to change it. Charlie got the shaft (not to say that he's a nice guy, because he's not).

[( R )evolution]

Look into Feral children. I believe the video above is about one of the children.

[berlitz23]

Thanks for the responses, it is just the nature component that i bear trouble accepting.

[Black Sheep]

So my question to you is there such a thing as human nature?
It is, and we have to 'exploit it' for the benefit of all.Greed & altruism both exist in our tendency to act as such, capitalism breeds the 1st, we have to unleash the second.

[Manifesto]

No such thing as human nature. Everybody that I know is different from their family. Some are greedy while others are very generous.

[fiddlesticks]

The only thing I consider to be human nature is that humans generally want to live, and when in a life or death situation they will do crazy unexpected things to ensure their own survival i.e. eat each other, as was the case with the Donner Family.

[9]

The only thing I consider to be human nature is that humans generally want to live, and when in a life or death situation they will do crazy unexpected things to ensure their own survival i.e. eat each other, as was the case with the Donner Family.

Yet it seems strange to describe such a "tendency" as "human nature" when all creatures (and arguably, all forms of life) do exactly this. In fact, I would argue that the tendency you've just described as "human nature" is the most universal characteristic among all life - from single-celled organisms to vegetation to viruses to human beings. All life has as its most prime component the fierce impulse to survive, and when outside circumstances unexpectedly change, all forms of life "will do crazy unexpected things to ensure their own survival", hence evolution.