Human Nature
Philosopher Human Nature
Plato - “virtue is knowledge”(virtues can be
learned, teached, worked.)
- natural state: “society” we are social
beings.
- dualism (we are divided in body and
soul)
- body:senses perceives material world
- soul: reason perceives the world of
ideas. the soul is immortal and
eternal and is divided into reason,
will and appetite.
Aristotle - Body and soul can't work separately
Government More Info
- Eudaimonia: the good
life
- purpose of
government: promote
virtues and achieve a
good life.
- philosophers KING
- politics=society
- 427-347 BC
- He lived in Athens.
- Allegory of the cave: world of ideas
(soul)
- education was very important for
plato
- the allegory of the cave( how plato
perceives and explains the world of
ideas and material world)
- there is a world of ideas or forms
separated from the material world.
reality.
- human senses cannot perceive this
world directly, only through reason.
- senses perceive shadows of reality
- there is a corresponding form or idea
of everything in the world of ideas or
forms
- genuine knowledge through reason.
- the material world is subjected to
changes, the world of ideas is
eternal and immutable.
- 384-322 BC
ALEXA DIERICX
- Political animal or zoon politikon:
natural tendency to form social
units.
- We learn from experience(senses)
Saint - dualism:body and soul, the body is
Augustine just an instrument of the soul
- Men are born with original sin which
can only be pardoned by baptism
- Men are rational beings with free
will, so they are capable of choosing
between good or evil.
- They have the ability to evaluate
choices through reasoning.
Machiavelli - Men are selfish, agressive, greedy,
wicked, stupid, easily manipulated,
unreliable.
- “the end justifies means”
Hobbes - Humans: rational agents who seek to
- society or polis=
creation of nature. if
you live out of a society
you're either a god or a
beast.
- authority relationships
- people get the
government they
deserve
the prince(book):obtain,
keep,and increase
power.(historical method no
muy común, ejemplifica con
historia)(lo hco para llamar la
familia de los medici)
- moral
- government should
be separated from
church
-
- Without an authority,
- Born in Stagira
- 354-430 CE
- Born in North Africa, lived in
Europe, Middle Ages.
- Tried to integrate classical
philosophy with Christian teachings.
- City of God:explains the earthly city
and heavenly city (book)
- 1469-1527CE (renaissance)
- New approach to political
theory.treats politics in practical
and realistic terms , leaving ethics
aside.
- REALISM
- Revolucionario, parteaguas.
- 1588-1679 (enlightenment)
ALEXA DIERICX

maximize power and act according to people will go into - british

self interest and self preservation
purposes.
- No social nature in human beings
- State of nature: war of all against all.
life is “solitary, nasty,brutish, and
short”.
conflict for food and - orphan, he was amargado, lived with
shelter, or power and his uncle, had a good economy but
glory. There will be an lived alone.
uncontrolled human - Leviathan(book): written during the
freedom. English civil war.monster.
- Can only be avoided if
men hand over their
arms (will) to a third
party,the sovereign
- The state needs to have
indivisible power and
authority to control its
subject.
- Social contract that
gives authority to a
sovereign is necessary

Rousseau - people are not inherently evil, but - society and human - 1712-1778
could become so under evil beings are shaped by - Swiss
governments political institutions - Proposed a radical break from the
- virtues and vices could be traced not - this condition comes to past
to human character but to human an end with the - Lived in Venice, where he realized
institutions. creation of society and that “everything depends entirely on
- human beings free from society are the emerge of private politics”
well disposed, happy creatures, property, because it -
content in their state of nature. They imposes
are guided by self love, self inequality.Civil society
preservation and compassion. (noble is the result of division
savage) and conflict working
ALEXA DIERICX

against natural
harmony
- social contract: pact
written in the hope of
improvement. A
legitimate state is one
that offers greater
freedom than is
obtainable in the state
of nature. people are a
sovereign entity, the
“general will”, from
which the state gains
its legitimacy.

Hobbes :

NATURAL RIGHT NATURAL LAW

- Subjective - objective way to reach peace.

- Man is authorized to do whatever he needs to to guarantee - Man guarantees his survival through reason
his survival - General rule established by reason:peaceful means to
- Liberty to usen his power to preserve his life. survival
- Obligation
- Social contract
- Way to overcome natural state
- End:place to preserve life