Philosophy, as I have said in the past, is a very wide subject. Anyone can be a philosopher and this, throughout history, has led to multiple, usually contradictory, answers to questions that humanity poses. One of the most frequently asked questions is: What is human nature? Wheedling out the answer to this particularly troublesome query will not only allow us, as humans, to know ourselves that little bit better, but will also hopefully hint at the answer to the big question. The great question, about life, the universe, and everything. What is the point of existence? (And no, the answer is not 42). But that will have to wait—for now—as we are still trying to figure out what makes us all human, even though we’ve had approximately 100,000 years to do so.
Martin Luther
No this is not the leader of the civil rights movement—this Luther is a much more conservative, grumpy, and catholic man, one who believed that all humans are inherently evil. That’s right: according to Luther we’re all bad to the bone. He argues that humanity is weak-willed, selfish, and in a constant state of rebellion against God. This comes from the story of Genesis, in which the Bible claims that the first humans, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God and that because of this, all humans are naturally bad. Luther believes that our purpose, therefore, is to do our best to love and serve God, the being who condemned us to ‘be evil’, and hope that we achieve salvation. Sounds like fun.
Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas proves that not all religion offers a negative view of humanity. Another Catholic, Aquinas thought that rather than all humanity being bad, all humans were born good! After all, he thought, why would God ever create anything evil? Aquinas also supported the idea that humans could be split into two: body and soul, and that the soul lived on after death. When discussing human purpose, Aquinas states that God wants things to actualise their potential. As we were created by God, we must actualise our main potential to learn—therefore we can achieve our purpose through learning, and seeking truth. Sounds more fun than praying!
Locke
Locke’s view does not share the ‘extreme’ ends of the spectrum that Luther and Aquinas present. Rather, Locke believes that all humans are born tabula rasa. This means blank slate; essentially, humans are not naturally good or naturally bad—they just are. Although we are not ‘good’ or ‘bad’ however, these concepts do still exist without us, and morality is objective. So, our aim as humans is to strive to be ‘good’, which Locke says, can be achieved through ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Freedom.” Sound familiar? That’s because that quote was the foundation of the American constitution. This is proof that philosophers can do more than ask questions.
So, as you can see, even three philosophers can’t agree on an idea of human nature. As we’re all humans, and have different experiences with humans, all views of human nature are subjective, rather than objective. Whilst it’s good to draw first hand experience, it also means that we can never have a truly unbiased view of human nature.
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