Human Nature

The humans as a whole lead evidently different lives comparing to those of the other animals, considering the fact that a few rearrangements of human genome can result in a dolphin. Despite of this genetic resemblance, there are certain traits that clearly differentiate human from the rest, and this so-called human nature has been one of the favorite topics discussed among people, since ‘self’ has been one of the most interesting topics of all time for anyone. Of course, there is no one characteristic that single-handedly defines what it means to be a human, and there are many of them that constitute human nature, some of which everyone can agree and others not so much. Some of these characteristic could be observed in the documentary film Obedience, which will be discussed later.

Before investigating the human nature, we need to discuss the exact meaning of the human nature so that more accurate description of it can be possible. Human nature means shared psychological attributes that are assumed to be shared by all human beings, and each of these attributes poses important questions regarding humanity, such as the relationship between a person’s innate characteristics and acquired ones, the tension between individuals and society, or the similarities and differences between humans and other animals.

One of the most obvious differences between humans and animals is the fact that humans are bipedal. Although there are some animals such as monkeys who can stand on their two feet, but humans are the only ones that spend most of their lives on their feet. This fact might look purely apparent and thus superficial. In addition, before the advent of tools and weapons, being bipedal even proved disadvantageous comparing to other quad...

... middle of paper ...

...d in Chinese POW camps where they forced American POW’s to endorse communism in front of the others for a couple of candies, and in fraternity clubs’ initiations where the freshmen go through all sorts of ordeal to earn membership.

The characteristics discussed above constitute human nature, which is a set of unique human characteristics that differentiates us from the other animals, and while some of the characteristics were formed by mankind’s innate properties, such as its biology, there are other ones that were shaped by environmental factors. Whether we like it or not, mankind has gone through years and years of development, and the resulted human nature defines what we have become and how we are different from the rest. Understanding this human nature will help us get to the answer to the question “who am I,” the ultimate homework of all times for the mankind.