MANTommy, Johnny, and the Facebook phenomenon.

STATE OFNATUREin

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Questions to ask: ‣ What is true about human nature?

‣ What is the natural state of man?

‣ What is the ideal form of government?

‣ Could people be trusted to rule themselves?

‣ What does the social media reveal about human nature?

‣ How do social networks affect social interaction?

INTRODUCING: Tommy

• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• Leviathan, 1651

INTRODUCING: Johnny

• John Locke (1632-1704)

• Second Treatise of Civil

Government, 1689

Tommy vs. JohnnyIssue: Thomas Hobbes John Locke

Human nature Man is not by nature a social animal; society could not exist except by the power of the state.

Man is by nature a social animal

The state of nature

No society; continual fear, and danger of violent death; life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short

Mostly in peace unless disturbed by evil-doers

Knowledge of natural law

Objectivity scarcely possible thus worthless in resolving practical disputes. Morality a command by ruler.

Objective morality; knowledge of right and wrong and so of what is lawful and what’s not.

What doesFACEBOOKreveal aboutHUMAN NATURE

On a cold winter’s day, a group of porcupines huddled together to stay warm and keep from freezing. But soon they felt one another’s quills and moved apart. When the need for warmth brought them closer together again, their quills again forced them apart. They were driven back and forth at the mercy of their discomforts until they found the distance from one another that provided both a maximum of warmth and a minimum of pain. In human beings, the emptiness and monotony of the isolated self produces a need for society. This brings people together, but their many offensive qualities and intolerable faults drive them apart again. The optimum distance that they finally find that permits them to coexist is embodied in politeness and good manners. Because of this distance between us, we can only partially satisfy our need for warmth, but at the same time, we are spared the stab of one another’s quills.

-Arthur Schopenhauer

PORCUPINE