What is human nature? Is it primarily competitive or cooperative? Selfish or empathic?
Hobbes vs. Locke vs. Rousseau - Social Contract Theories Compared
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glgU6o4nZQc
Moral Foundations Theory (Jonathan Haidt)
https://moralfoundations.org
"…the function of man is to live a certain kind of life, and this activity implies a rational principle, and the function of a good man is the good and noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed it is performed in accord with the appropriate excellence: if this is the case, then happiness turns out to be an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue."
"He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life."
-Artistotle, from the Nicomachean Ethics
https://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/aristotle/
Aristotle's 12 Virtues:
1. Courage
2. Temperance
3. Generosity
4. Magnificence
5. Magnanimity
6. Ambition
7. Patience
8. Truth
9. Wit
10. Friendliness
11. Modesty
12. Justice
"For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger, and covetous of gain; as long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours; they offer you their blood, their goods, their life, and their children, as I have before said, when the necessity is remote; but when it approaches, they revolt. "
- Niccolo Machiavelli, from The Prince
"African Genesis", a 1961 treatise on the aggressive and violent nature of human evolution by Richard Ardrey, based on the work of anthropologist Raymond A. Dart (1953)
https://www.nationalbook.org/books/african-genesis/
Opening scene from "2001, A Space Odyssey", directed by Stanley Kubrick (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avjdKTqiVvQ&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqoWYULgfzOGOYPu4un4VdIJ&index=1
Critique of Ardrey's thesis, by Stanley Lieberman (1975):
(1) Labeling any behavior as instinctive fails to explain its causes. Aggressive behavior exists in many diverse species, and is caused by many things. In insects, such behavior may be triggered by trace chemicals; in birds, by territorial defense, but only during the breeding season; in carnivores, by prey, but only if certain internal conditions are present; in apes, by a predator, but only if escape routes are not available and the troop is considered in danger; in man, by a mere verbal slur, but only if attack is an appropriate response in the individual’s culture, and only if the individual’s experience indicates that attack would be appropriate to the specific circumstances. If the murderous raids of the Brazilian Indians are explained in terms of instincts, how is the peacefulness of the Eskimos to be explained? True, man displays aggressive behavior. However, this does not imply an aggressive instinct. It implies the capacity for such behavior. Man also has the capacity for tenderness and love. Man’s aggressive behavior is learned and is based on his beliefs and principles. Since man’s ideology has largely been based on a disregard for human rights, is it any surprise that he acts aggressively?
(2) The development of a weapon two million years ago could not have played a major role in insuring man’s survival, since man’s ancestral line goes back closer to thirty‐five million years. Throughout most of this time, man had no tools and no weapons to help him.
(3) There is no evidence that early man’s principle food was obtained by hunting. In fact, the majority of his diet was composed of fruits, nuts, tubers, grubs, and rodents.
(4) Of all the primates, only the gibbon can be considered territorial. Furthermore, most behavior for apes is learned, since different populations, living in different areas, display different behaviors. A possible display of territoriality in one habitat is not present in another.
(5) No evidence of territoriality exists today among hunting peoples still living, for example, the Bushman, the Pygmy, and the Eskimo.
(6) Why do governments find it necessary to pass laws against immigration and treason and for a draft? If aggression and territoriality are instinctive, we would love our country and fight at the slightest provocation, real or imagined.
To accept Ardrey, is to blame biology for our destructive acts. Just as society is not responsible, neither are our genes. We must accept the responsibility for our actions. What we do, we choose to do.
"A 15,000 Year-Old Bone", by Jeffrey Oak, Yale Divinity School Reflections
"Someone once asked anthropologist Margaret Mead what she considered to be the first evidence of civilization. She answered: a human thigh bone with a healed fracture found in an archaeological site 15,000 years old. Why not tools for hunting or religious artifacts or primitive forms of communal self-governance?
Mead points out that for a person to survive a broken femur the individual had to have been cared for long enough for that bone to heal. Others must have provided shelter, protection, food and drink over an extended period of time for this kind of healing to be possible.
The great anthropologist Margaret Mead suggests that the first indication of human civilization is care over time for one who is broken and in need, evidenced through a fractured thigh bone that was healed."
https://divinity.yale.edu/news/15000-year-old-bone-and-fall-2013-issue-reflections
"The Mirror Neurons that Shaped Civilization", TED Talk about mirror neurons by Vilayanur Ramachandran, 2009
https://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_the_neurons_that_shaped_civilization
"The Amygdala-Prefrontal Cortex Connection is Crucial"
"The Empathic Civilization", Royal Society of the Arts talk by Jeremy Rifkin, August 2010
https://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_rifkin_the_empathic_civilization
"This Is How You Live When the World Falls Apart", By Jon Mooallem, NY Times, 3/12/2020
The Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 surprised everyone by showing that natural disasters can bring out more kindness than selfishness, as discovered by the Disaster Research Center at Ohio State.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-disaster-response.html
"Acts of Kindness are Really Contagious", interview with historian Rutger Bregman by Billy Perrigo, TIME Magazine
https://time.com/5838900/rutger-bregman-humankind-interview/
"Good Behavior Is Just As Contagious As Bad Habits", By Nicole Skibola, FastCompany, 1/6/14
https://www.fastcompany.com/3022994/good-behavior-is-just-as-contagious-as-bad-habits
"People Are More Generous Than You May Think", By David Brooks, NY Times, 8/31/23
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/opinion/human-nature-good-bad-generous.html