Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Human Nature: Hobbes and Rousseau

Understanding both viewpoints Hobbes and Rousseau there are some points that are acceptable to describe the human nature and there are others that I would consider too drastic. For instance we have Hobbes point of view which states that: "The natural state of man's life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". To my understanding all this means is that we as humans have no "good" in us and that all the actions we perform are for our own sake. I would argue this argument by saying that not all humans do everything in a "selfish way" because for example we have mothers who are always willing to give up everything so that their children can have the best. On the other hand we have Rousseau who believes that humans are: "noble savages who have been negatively influenced by society. I believe that there are certain things in which society can negatively impact us, but there are so much more in which it can make our life better. We need the rules dictated by society so that we can maintain order and respect among each others. Yes, I know there are many things in society that change the way we are and the way we approach certain things, but we need to learn how to balance the effect of society.

1 comment:

  1. I would agree. A balance between the two seems to be the most accurate and apt description of human nature. There are other examples we can incorporate here as well, such as the story of Mike Monsoor, a Medal of Honor recipient who jumped on a grenade to save his fellow SEALS. He clearly didn`t gain anything from the effort, as he lost his life; rather it was a completely selfless act of sacrifice for his squadmates.

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