Human Nature, Cultural Diversity and the Enlightenment

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-116
Author(s):  
Harvey Chisick ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
The Enlightenment

scholarly journals Justification of human nature. Universalism and cultural diversity from the point of view of modern science

KANT ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 229-236
Author(s):  
Alexander Brodsky
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Historical Experience ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
And Behavior

In this article the author is going to prove that all the data of recent decades obtained in the field of neurophysiology, linguistics, logic, semiotics and anthropology prove that the idea of a unite Human Nature, which was postulated by the Enlightenment, is not a fiction or even "abstraction", but a perfectly recognizable (though nondescript) reality. All humans are the same, and human nature does not depend on culture. However, the paper addresses not so much the data as their consequences. The universal Human Nature implies the existence of uniform standards of thinking and behavior (ethics), unaffiliated with historical experience, traditions, and beliefs. These standards are available to everyone. But they are unevenly implemented in various cultures due to various historical circumstances.

scholarly journals Исторический процесс в свете христианской антропологии Ф. М. Достоевского

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Nikolaievitch Tarassov
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Field Of View ◽  
Christian Realism ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Moral World ◽  
The Law ◽  
The One

Based on the fundamental concepts of the "mystery of man" and Christian realism, the "law of the Ego" and the "law of love" for Dostoevsky's creative consciousness, the article examines the one-sidedness of biologizing and socializing concepts of human nature since the Enlightenment and their connection with entropic processes in the spiritual and moral world of people and declining trends in the course of history. It is shown how the spiritual laws of life, which are leaving the field of view of rationalistic and pragmatic consciousness, transform social-progressive design and planning, and introduce nihilistic elements into them. It is emphasized that the methodology of Christian realism is universal, that it connects the "mystery of man" with the mystery of history, and becomes one of the main principles for assessing the hierarchy of values in various ideological and social systems.

Introduction

2009 ◽  
pp. 2-6
Author(s):  
Barbara Graziosi ◽  
Phiroze Vasunia ◽  
George Boys-Stones
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Social Criticism ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Matthew Arnold ◽  
Alexander The Great ◽  
Greek Society ◽  
The Enlightenment

This article introduces the themes for the first part of this book, ‘Hellenes and Hellenism’. In the classic Victorian statement of political and social criticism, Culture and Anarchy, Matthew Arnold wrote that to get rid of one's ignorance and to see things as they are is the simple and attractive ideal which Hellenism holds out before human nature; and from the simplicity and charm of this ideal, Hellenism and human life is imbued with a kind of clarity and radiance. The rest of the article briefly describes related themes such as modernity, classical antiquity, Greek society, colonization, Alexander the Great, Hellenistic culture, Rome, Hebraism, Islam, the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment.

scholarly journals 反思現代文明的脆弱——回應薩斯教授

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-50
Author(s):  
Kai Man KWAN
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Gross National Product ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Human Potential ◽  
Moral Order ◽  
Good Society ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Human Happiness ◽  
Digital Commons ◽  
The Face

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract in English only.In my response to Prof. Sass, I first elaborate some points on which we agree. For example, I find the five crises of modern civilization discussed by Prof. Sass to be quite real, and I believe that this points to the fragility of modern civilization. I then critique the Enlightenment ideology of progress and argue that we need to prepare for the possibility of a cultural decline. I also agree with Prof. Sass’s emphasis on both the human potential for creativity and the human capacity for self-destruction. This contradicts liberal optimism about human nature and raises questions about our internal and spiritual resources. I support Prof. Sass’s critique of modern society’s obsession with GNP (Gross National Product) and agree that the concept of a GHP (Goss Happiness Product) is a better criterion for a good society. However, I believe that we must overcome even the vestiges of hedonism by affirming the intrinsic value of an objective moral order that transcends human happiness. In the end, in the face of the possibilities of disasters and the collapse of modern civilization, we need to return to our basic communities, such as family, and emphasize the cultivation of virtue.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 7 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

Human Dignity before Kant

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remy Debes
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Rational Agency ◽  
The Enlightenment

Most modern discussions of human dignity give historical pride of place to Immanuel Kant and his idea that dignity is grounded in human rational agency or autonomy. This chapter challenges this practice by articulating a “second story” about dignity—a story that also unfolded during the Enlightenment, but which grounded dignity in human passionate agency. Thus it is suggested that a range of thinkers, including Rousseau, Adam Smith, and Smith’s French translator, Sophie De Grouchey, all seemed to have inclined in this new direction. However, above all others, this chapter lauds Denis Diderot’s contribution to this second story of human dignity. Correspondingly, the essay culminates in an examination of Diderot’s wide-ranging inquiries into human nature, politics, and social theory.

Marx and Nietzsche

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Ferrone
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
European Society ◽  
Dialectical Materialism ◽  
Will To Power ◽  
Bourgeois Society ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Will

This chapter examines Karl Marx's claim that the Enlightenment was an ideology artfully created by the bourgeois class and Friedrich Nietzsche's argument that modernity obfuscated through reason and rationality the true face of human nature and its dominant instinct, the will to power. Marx based his analysis of the Enlightenment on the so-called materialist overthrow of Hegelian dialectical idealism, without abandoning the so-called paradigm of the Centaur. Within the framework of a new historical and dialectical materialism, the Enlightenment was examined from two dialectically linked perspectives: structural, analyzing the Enlightenment as a decisive generative moment of modern European society, and suprastructural, which insisted that it was the bourgeois society that produced the Enlightenment as an ideology.

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