GS101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Human Nature
Document Summary
Physical and mental structures regulate how we relate to the external world. Basic biological needs (e. g. need for food, shelter, security) are universal: universal life-cycle (birth, sex, death) Universal capacities (to think, evaluate, fantasize, to act, to fantasize and hope) Universal emotions (love, hate, anger, sadness, vanity, shame, hope, nostalgia) Human nature may be universal, but is not deterministic. Human nature may function as a predisposition or a tendency but it doesn"t necessarily determine the outcome. To be fully human is to recognize the non-animalistic, non-biological, non- material parts of ourselves. To be fully human is to recognize the cultural/spiritual aspects of our being. Human beings need meaning, recognition, respect and dignity. The meanings that human beings attach to universal features of human life may vary across time and space. No one individual or society exists as an island in an increasingly integrated world. The distant past and future shapes us as individuals and as a species.
