Human Nature

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Is there or is there not human nature? For Charles Darwin the answer is no. Darwin was the first to introduce the concept of evolution. He believed that humans evolved from the ape and not in the image of God. Darwin contradicted Aristotle's view that man has a purpose in life -to reason. For Darwin, man has no purpose.

According to Darwin, man began as one of a few species on this planet, fighting for survival. Man was better equipped with certain traits that allowed him to pass through the filters of natural selection. Man's physical and intellectual traits allowed him to surpass all over species, thus becoming the greatest predator and severely diminishing the risk of man becoming another species prey. Mans climb to the top of the food chain illustrates the concept of the survival of the fittest. Darwin believed that struggle and competition were essential for the continued biological progress of mankind. He also believed that heredity and inheritance were important factors that needed to be considered in marriage and reproduction. A program called "eugenics" (Darwin 217) was established from the belief that legal and other necessary matters that need be taken are done so in order to improve or protect the elite of the human population. This equates to the breeding of the best human possible.

Jean-Paul Sartre introduced the term Existentialism. The Existentialist theory of human nature stresses three characteristics: individual existence, individual freedom and choice. Due to man's ability to create his own nature, there is no one human nature shared by all. Existentialism believes that man exists with no specific purpose. Sartre "denies that human beings have any fixed "essence" at all" (Sartre 241). Because of this lack...

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...committing the greatest sin. St. Augustine emphasized the notion of a will. Man's will is the ability to choose between good and evil. Like Plato, Augustine believed that there are desires and appetites that weigh man down everyday but through faith in God man can overcome these desires and develop the ability to reason. For Christians, the purpose of life is to achieve happiness by knowing God through reason. Which of these views is correct? If the Judeo-Christian view is right, how does one survive if he does not believe in or devote his life to God? If man believes in the Rational view of reason, isn't it inevitable that aggression will always be the result from the constant suppression of ones desires? One might be inclined to agree with the Existentialist view on human nature; that man creates his own nature through the choices he makes every day of his life.

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