What is human nature--is there such a thing?

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What is human nature—is there such a thing?

“Man transcends all other life because he is, for the first time, life aware of itself. Man is in nature, subject to its dictates and accidents, yet he transcends nature because he lacks the unawareness which makes the animal a part of nature—as one with it.”

Wo/man is both body and soul. S/he is part of two worlds, each in conflict with the other. Fromm describes the essence of man as not being a given quality or substance but as being a “contradiction inherent in human existence”.

What can wo/man do to cope with the fright that accompanies consciousness of existence? How can wo/man find the harmony necessary to free her or him self from the torture of aloneness; thereby permitting her to find a unity with nature?

The answer Fromm seeks is not only a theoretical one, but one in which humans can live with in their thought and action–in their whole being. Any answer is better than no answer or no question. More is to be learned in error than in apathy and ignorance. All possible answers must “help man to overcome the sense of separateness and to gain a sense of union, of ones, of belonging.”

Fromm is not supplying us with the definition of the essence of man but he is saying that “what constitutes the essence is the question and the need for an answer; the various forms of human existence are not the essence, but they are the answers to the conflict which, in itself, is the essence.”

Conflict is the essential characteristic of humanness.

Regression to animal existence is one answer to the quest to transcend separateness. Wo/man can try to eliminate that which makes her human but also tortures her; s/he can discard reason and self-consciousness. What is noteworthy here is that if everybody does it, it ain’t fiction; anything everyone does is reality, even if it is a virtual reality. For most people, reason and reality is nothing more than public consensus. “One never ‘loses one’s mind’ when nobody else’s mind differs from one’s own.”

Regression to our animal form of instinctual behavior happens when we replace our lost animal instincts with our own fully developed symbolic instincts; we can then program our self to uncritically follow these culturally formed instincts without further consideration. We can then do like the elephant parade; we hold the tail of the one in front of us with our trunk and march in file without any other thoughts to disturb our tranquility.

Quotes from “The Heart of Man” by Erich Fromm

Questions for discussion

Is there such a thing as human nature? Can something exist without an essence?

Are humans just animals with insignificant differences from other animals? If so what are these differences? Are they significant or are they basically a distinction without a difference? What does it mean to be a distinction without a difference?

Can a person deny his or her difference and just be an animal, unconscious of a difference?

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hat do you mean by human nature ? do you know yourself ? what do you mean by essence ?

human nature would be to be human right ?

Pop culture mainly use it to ok flaw (or what may seem to be flaw to some) surrounding human behaviour, things such as greed, laziness and sefishness by using the “because everyone else does” excuse but with an added “we cant help it”. By there logic i may not be count as human since i don’t have allot from the long list of rediculous retard bound flaw/s they use when they say “it’s human nature”.

Pointless and wrongly viewed ?

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If human nature is not something that makes us humans and other animals ‘not human’ then what does. If this human nature is not the same where does sameness happen? What makes it possible for us to say that here in time these are humans and later in time this is also human? I agree that in real terms all reality is a continuum but we humans need a demarcation line signifying one container from another. We cannot think without containers but we also must identify these containers.

Generally substance or qualities are used to identify one container from another but in the case of the human species I do not think such a distinction works.

Is there a distinction or is there a difference between the human species and other animals? In other words is there a continuum between the human species and other animal species?

I would say that race represents a distinction among humans; whereas language ability represents a difference between the human species and other animal species. There are distinctions within a species and there are differences within various species within the animal kingdom.

How do we separate one species from another? Is this separation just an artificial reality or is there something that is real separating species and especially the human species from all others. I think that there is and I would call it ‘man transcends all other life because he is, for the first time, life aware of itself’. This is the core characteristic that makes up human nature.

It is all very puzzling.

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My belief is that we are animals that do not wish to be, so we seperate ourselves from the others as much as we can. Wether this is justified or not, i believe that we are a distinction in the animal kingdom not a difference. I think that i have read somewhere that on a genetic level we are not that different from most animal life.(not just chimps). I would put the need for there to be a great gap between animals and humans down to the lack of understanding of our baser emotions, and i think this lack of understanding frightens us as they are usually the stronger emotions. Also why are we self -aware and other animals seem not to be? i dont think that we know the answer and i also believe that when we do find an answer we may not like it because we may find that animals could actually be better off for not being self aware for they do not have such things as war,envy,fear of death etc. So in all i think that we do not delve further in the belief that we are better than animals and we do not wish to be proven wrong.

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So, by your definition are other self-aware creatures human?

Surely there is more to the man than simply, “I am”.

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Are there any self-aware creatures?

There is i hope more to man than i am but as to wether it would be a destiction from other animals im not sure.

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Dolphins, primates of many stripes, elephants, and I think maybe one or two others. I think pigs, but I am not sure.

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Why those and not others what makes them different?

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If someone had the correct answer to that question, they would surely be famous.

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I think human nature can be described. If we look at all the different cultures, then compare, then get to what is similar between them, you have identified what the nature of humans is, rather than what is unnatural or comes from the culture itself.

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Or you can argue that all those societies stemmed from the same place, so there’s going to be some similarities. Doesn’t mean it’s “nature”, it could have turned out differently if started otherwise.

I personally think what makes us human is consciousness, and consciousness is very flexible and in constant flux.

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I am certainly not an expert is such matters but all that I have learned about the human sciences indicate that there is a consensus about the ‘scientific fact’ that humans are the only creatures who are conscious of their mortality. Now you use the word “self-awareness” and I am somewhat aware that such matters have been tested and that some primates recognize themselves when placed before a mirror. I do not think that “self-awareness” as displayed in these tests is the same thing as the recognition of being alive and thus being mortal.

Everything that I have read in the human sciences indicates that the structure of all those sciences is constructed upon this foundation of humans being unique in their consciousness of mortality, which is a direct function of “life aware of life”.

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What about elephant funeral rituals?

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What makes humans different is humans can take things from their past experiences and use them in the future in a quantity that other animals can’t match.

We can pick up words, images, sounds, and ideas much more quickly. That’s all. If you look at KoKo, the gorilla that can speak sign language, you’ll see she’s really just like us, but just slower. Also, biologically we’re not much different, so I don’t see why our abilities would be much different either. To me, it’s the difference between a go kart and a hot rod. They’re the same thing, just one is a lot bigger, so it seems like they’re soooooo different, but they’re not. They’re wheels, gas, engine, chasis, the exact same thing.

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Recognizing your reflection in a mirror in not an acid test of awareness, its only evidence to suggest that the animal knows it’s different from some other animal, big deal, that’s already proven in mating instincts. Most predators that are not on this list of recognizing themselves in a mirror will use the reflection in a still pond of water to detect danger or prey coming up behind them. I don’t think even those who do such experiments are ballsy enough to say that it is definitive evidence or even strong evidence of awareness, only a possibility, after all how do you test such a thing.

Awareness is not just being conscience that you exist, but being aware that your actions have consequences beyond what directly affects you. Human awareness is being aware and understanding cause and effect on others as well as yourself, no animal has exhibited anything that would suggest they could understand or operate in this.

The people that suggest we are just animals and there is no real separation obviously don’t spend much time observing nature.

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So, an animal is unconscious? I don’t think so.

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No way. A deaf, blind, mute human who was told that people lived forever, then told when people died that they went to the store for a while, would never be aware of their mortality.

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That’s what Siddhartha’s father was banking on, and look at how that ended!