Is There a Human Nature?

These essays approach the question in two different ways. The first is a philosophical attempt at definition. Bhikhu Parekh agrees that there is a universal human nature but that there is also a nature which is culture-specific and a third which is self-reflective. Daniel Dahlstrom argues that we know our nature only when it is recognized by our culture and that the liberal democratic idea of the state both celebrates and threatens the notion of fundamental human equality. Stanley Rosen gives a contemporary interpretation of the classical Greek view in proposing that philosophy is an expression of our humanity, an openness to the human love of wisdom. Knud Haakonssen is not ready to endorse any given orthodoxy regarding human nature but argues rather for openness to experimental views and promising hypotheses. Lisa Sowle Cahill defends a feminist interpretation of Catholic moral theology; we must be able to say that the battering of women is everywhere and always wrong. And Robert Cummings Neville notes that being human means having the obligation to take responsibility for our history.

The second group of essays recognizes that we are what we do as well as what we say we are and asks what it means to be genuinely humane. Glenn Loury criticizes Murray and Herrnstein's The Bell Curve as advocacy for a particular elitist view of human nature, which he rejects. Ray Hart explores the moral "fault" and "fallenness" in human nature. Graham Parkes insists that human nature is not morally privileged but must be seen as part of nature taken as a whole. Tu Wei-ming explores the Confucian idea of filial piety as a key to global ethics. Leroy Rouner examines Kierkegaard's psychology of sin, and Sissela Bok uses the metaphor of the lifeboat to see what extreme situations reveal about our nature as human beings.

ISBN 0268011818   Pages 232 ISBN13 9780268011819 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher University of Notre Dame Press   Weight (grammes) 553 Imprint University of Notre Dame Press   Published in Notre Dame IN Format Hardback   Series ISSN 18 Publication date 31 Dec 1997   Series title Boston University Studies in Philosophy & Religion Non-book description xv, 212p. ;   Height (mm) 230 Library of Congress 97020808   Width (mm) 161 DEWEY 128   Spine width (mm) 25 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly

		Preface
		Acknowledgments
		Contributors
		Introduction by Leroy S. Rouner		1
		Is There a Human Nature? by Bhikhu Parekh		15
		The Human Need for Recognition and the Crisis of Liberal Democracy by Daniel O. Dahlstrom		28
		Human Nature and the Founding of Philosophy by Stanley H. Rosen		43
		Reason and Will in the Humanities by Knud Haakonssen		63
		Natural Law: A Feminist Reassessment by Lisa Sowle Cahill		80
		Is There an Essence of Human Nature? by Robert Cummings Neville		94
		Human Intelligence and Social Inequality by Glenn C. Loury		115
		Fall/Fault in Human Nature/Nurture? by Ray L. Hart		132
		The Place of the Human in Nature: Paradigms of Ecological Thinking, East and West by Graham Parkes		151
		Humanity as Embodied Love: Exploring Filial Piety in a Global Ethical Perspective by Tu Wei-ming		174
		Why Good People Do Bad Things: Kierkegaard on Dread and Sin by Leroy S. Rouner		184
		Lifeboat Ethics by Sissela Bok		195
		Index		209

 Be the first to write a customer review