innate desire to have what isn’t his. Discontent is a hopeless side effect to human nature, and unfortunately all men deal with it hundreds of instances within a lifetime. What people don’t realize, though, is they are given what they have for a reason. The creator of the universe purposely places things, people, and circumstances in everyone’s life when it is appropriate. When men chase after their own desires, it often results in some sort of consequence. This, the effects of selfish human nature, can be observed in many characters in Oedipus the King and Hamlet. Claudius, a character in the play Hamlet, is the ultimate example of a greedy human being. Claudius was the runner up to being crowned king. His adored…
The State of Nature is a concept that has been discussed by social contract theorists for many years. Both John Locke and Thomas Hobbes completed competing versions in their writings, Two Treatises of Government and Leviathan. While each differs substantially, both theorists were looking to understand and justify human nature. It is my argument that Hobbes depiction of the state of nature is more accurate because it takes into account a human beings are, at their core, selfish creatures. This…
order to maintain peace. For me, this idea that without regulation we would all act only out of self-interest, raises fundamental questions about what it means to be human; predominantly whether our nature is inherently selfish, and perhaps if we even have a fixed, immutable nature at all or if our actions and behaviour stem from how we are nurtured, causing them to be relative, depending on context. If we didn’t have governmental systems in place or at least aspects of societal structure,…
expresses as individuals attempt to obtain authority and selfish desires. The malicious actions during these times cause emotional turmoil and suffering for individuals and their relationships. In Othello, Iago desperately craves the power of Othello’s lieutenant and the respect the higher officers receive. The rejection Iago feels when he is denied the promotion produces a lack of dominance and virility, so Iago seeks to take revenge on the wrongdoings against him. Iago goes to extreme lengths…
Humans have the potential to become a monster, but whether that potential displays itself or not depends on the person and their environment. When a person does posses the traits of a monster though, like Victor in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, it can have disastrous consequences on everyone around them. In the novel, Victor begins as a humble university student striving for more knowledge. Meanwhile, he becomes more selfish and is void of any compassion towards the being he creates. As a…
This month’s conversation centered on the idea of a human nature and inherit characteristic of humanity based on our human nature. It was a discussion that has two men on two different sides of the idea. The clashing ideas, firstly the ideas that humanity is raw, evil, and selfish, and the other saw humans as inherently good creatures. This lead to so testy comments of both sides. However, after discussing the merits of humanities inherit characteristic, the discussion moved towards how inherit…
flatheaded parson to the visionless dabbler in science, presumes to speak authoritatively of human nature”. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, two of the most influential modern philosophers, presumed to speak authoritatively on human nature. They presumed so much so, that each of the philosophers dedicated the bulk of a novel to discussing their interpretation of human nature. In fact, Goldman herself speaks quite extensively on her interpretation of human nature. Hobbes, Locke, and Goldman fit…
views and theories, this in turn would therefor alter the views of human nature. Many past Philoshipers would touch on the subject of human nature including Marcus Aurelius who wondered in humans were inherently good, bad or somewhere in the middle. The new Philoshipers would come to challenge and complicate Aurelius and previous great thinkers and ideas and change everything we though we knew about human nature. Marcus Aurelius is known as the father of Stoicism, a philosophical school of…
Human beings are influenced by both their genetics and the environment they are raised in. There is a great deal of evidence for both nature and nurture, so why can’t we realize that both can have an impact? Throughout history, the homo species has had to fight for survival. We as humans, for the most part, do not need to fight for food and shelter, yet some of our animal instincts remain. It is not so crazy to say that humans are effected by nature and the environment they grew up in. As we…
The Inhuman Condition In their separate writings, philosophers Thomas Hobbes and Niccolò Machiavelli present a bleak outlook on the inherent human condition. In his book Leviathan, Hobbes focuses on the innate egocentric and primal nature of humanity, while Machiavelli, in his book The Prince, expands on the paradoxical necessity of possessing these outwardly cruel and stingy characteristics in order to promote human goodwill. Though each man has a slightly different focus, it is clear that both…