Beyond Human Nature
Beyond Human Nature
This chapter takes up the question of human nature from both a biological/behavioural perspective and the perspective or a shared innate knowledge which informs the human experience. It maintains that a biological/behavioural description of human nature is possible while rejecting the possibility that human nature could be described from the second perspective. The author also examines the ways that Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and finally Buddhism conceive of human nature, and how these religious conceptions relate to idea of psychic unity or innate knowledge. Buddhism, the author argues, puts forward an account of human nature which seems plausible. In this account, the core of human nature is the collection of thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and interpretations which the human has experienced or formulated.
Keywords: human nature, psychic unity, innate knowledge, sociobiology, Anatman, Buddhism, morality
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