Preface Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is Man.

Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise, and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the skeptic side With too much weakness for the Stoics pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest. In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer, Born but to die, and reasoning but to err; Alike in ignorance, his reason such, Whether he thinks too little, or too much: Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused, or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled: The glory, jest, and riddle of the world! (Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man) What more important subject is there but the study of human nature? The proper study of humankind is humanity, to rephrase Popes classic poem in gender-neutral language. We want to now what we are, where we came from, and where we are going: our origins, nature, and destiny. An understanding of our nature and destiny should help us live our lives to the fullest or at least give us guidance. Religious thinkers and philosophers have pondered these questions for centuries. The 17th-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote the following: What is man is nature? A Nothing in comparison with the Infinite, an All in comparison with the Nothing, a mean between nothing and everything. Since he is infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, the end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from him in an impenetrable secret; he is equally incapable of seeing the Nothing from which he was made, and the Infinite in which he is swallowed up. -What will he do then, but perceive the appearance of the middle of things, in an eternal despair of knowing either their beginning or their end. All things proceed from the Nothing, and are borne towards the Infinite. Who will follow these marvelous processes? (Pascal, Pensees, section 72) Since the dawn of human history, humans have exhibited contrary qualities: good and evil, love and hate, strength and weakness, kindness and cruelty, aggressivity and passivity, generosity and greed, courage and cowardice. We seem part angel, part demon, part rational, and part animal, capable of great glory and great tragedy, yet incapable of seeing the Nothing from which [we were] made, and the Infinite in which [we are] swallowed up. Having a sense of eternity in our hearts, but confined by temporal and spatial constraints, we seek to

understand ourselves both individually and as a species. What is our nature? What is this enigma called human? Who are we? In this book we seek answers to these questions. We examine some of the main theories in Western philosophy and religion and, to a lesser degree, in Eastern thought. The goal is to use the theories of great religions and philosophers to shed light on question of our nature and identity. Ultimately, all of us must decide for ourselves who and what we are and, based on that answer, how we shall live. I have set forth more than a dozen classical theories of human nature that grew out of my own research and experience while teaching a course on theories of human nature for several years. I have tried to apply the principle of charity, which enjoins that we give a theory the best interpretations possible. This book begins with the biblical views of human nature and moves on to the Greek theories of the Sophists, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The Jewish/Christian biblical and Greek theories are the two most important historical sources for our self-understanding in the Western tradition and are vital to an understanding of who we are. The biblical view is deeply religious, defining humanity as a creation of God with magnificent inherent valuemade in the image of God, a little less than god; our inherent dignity is rooted in having a divine element within us. The Greeks were relatively secular, basing their understanding of human nature on rational self-interest without appeal to religion. The Sophists were ethical relativists; Socrates had a mystical faith in an inner moral voice and the overarching reality of goodness; Plato believed in a transcendental world of Forms under the rule of the form of the Good; Aristotle, more empirical and experimental, held that reason was the defining feature of human nature and sufficient to lead us to happiness. For Aristotle, religion was an unnecessary hypothesis, though his ruminations on the Unmoved Mover provided the basis for the cosmological argument for the existence of God. A synthesis of the biblical and Greek views is provided by Augustine (see chapter 5), culminating in the idea of the Great Chain of Being, stretching from God (the fullness of being) to creatures with minimal being, with evil defined as the absence of being, as a nothing. Chapter 6, on Hindu/Buddhist views of human nature, provides a snapshot into a profoundly different approach to our subject. Suffering, rather than sin, is the great nemesis from which humans need to be saved and meditation, the primary means of that salvation. Chapter 7, contrasts classically opposing views on human nature: the liberal and conservative approaches, epitomized in Hobbes and Rousseau but extending far beyond them. By liberal and conservative I mean, not so much political views, thought that is part of the approach, but views of who we are. Cautious conservatives honor our tradition and historical loyalties, while liberals are more optimistic, urging us to change and to transform our institutions and, perhaps, our very nature. Chapter 8 examines Kants Copernican theory of human nature as an expression of rational liberalism, while chapter 9 examines the Schopenhauers profoundly pessimistic theory. Chapter 10 and 11 analyze two theories that have influenced modern intellectual thought: Marxs dialectical materialism and Freuds pansexuality. In this chapter 12 we study the existential theories of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus. In Chapter 13 we investigate Darwins theory of evolution, perhaps the greatest challenge to our self-understanding in the last millennium. In order to comprehend human nature, one needs to examine the mind/body problem. In chapter 14 we study the three most prominent contemporary positins on the relationship of the mind to the brain: dualistic interactionism, materialist monism, and functionalism.

This leads directly to the question of free will. Are we really free agents, or are we entirely determined by antecedent causes? Can the ideas of free will and determinism be reconciled? We take up this issue in chapter 15. We end with a comprehensive overview of our study, bringing the entire project in understanding human nature to a finale. A summary and study questions at the end of each chapter are meant to help the student focus his or her thoughts, while a selective bibliography for each chapter serves as a guide to further study. A glossary of key concepts and specialized words is included at the end of the book. I am grateful to Stephen Kershnar, Max Hocutt, John Jagger, Michael Levin, and Sterling Harwood for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this work. Several reviewers offered excellent corrections and suggestions on the original manuscript, which enable me to improve this book: Rhiannon Allen of Long Island University, George Graham of Wake Forest University, Tyler Hower of the University of San Diego, Jeff Jordan of the University of Delaware, Don Mitchell of Purdue University, and three anonymous reviewers. I am especially grateful to my editors, Emily Voigt and Robert Miller of Oxford University Press, for suggesting this project and providing strong support all along the way. They provided me with the best support for which an author can hope. Celeste Alexander did an excellent job bringing this work into production. Sterling Harwood prepared the index. My wife, Trudy, read over the several versions of the entire manuscript and made several improvements. To her, my beloved companion of over 40 years, this book is dedicated. I can identify with Brutus when he said, regarding his Portia, O ye gods, Render me worthy of this noble wife! (Shakespeares Julius Caesar). Without her love and support I would not have been able to accomplish whatever good that I have done. She is living proof that human nature can be good and that it can be greatly enhanced by a happy marriage. Louis P. Pojman Clare Hall Cambridge University January 20, 2005