CORE THEME

The background theory

• I categorize theories about human nature into four types.

• These types are:– Essentialism– Naturalism– Relativism (culturalism)– Existentialism / Buddhism

4Four theories about being human

THE PHILOSOPHICAL SPACE

Do not form beliefs about things. Just be. Stay in the moment.

Depends how you see it.

There is an eternal truth about how things

are.

How things are changes when forces

of nature act upon them.

Do not form beliefs about things. Just be. Stay in the moment.

Depends how you see it.

There is an eternal truth about how things

are.

How things are changes when forces

of nature act upon them.

Do not form beliefs about things. Just be. Stay in the moment.

Depends how you see it.

There is an eternal truth about how things

are.

How things are changes when forces

of nature act upon them.

c

Do not form beliefs about things. Just be. Stay in the moment.

Depends how you see it.

There is an eternal truth about how things

are.

How things are changes when forces

of nature act upon them.

• Cyranaics (Aristippos), Epicuros• Darwin• Natural scienctists• Many psychologists: Freud, Skinner,

Lorenz…• Early Wittgenstein, Dewey, Nagel,

Sellars, Quine

• Buddha• Pyrrho, Heraclitus • Nietzsche• Kierkegaard• Sartre• Heidegger

• The sofists (Protagoras)• Hegel, Marx• Most anthropologists: Frans Boaz, C. Levi-

Strauss• Most postmodernists (Derrida, Lyotard)• Hermeneutics (Gadamer, Heidegger to a

degree)• Many nationalists: Alasdair McIntyre• Social constructivism

• Plato• Descartes• Kant• Fundamenalist

interpretations of religions

3D

Abstract

Abstract

Concrete

Future or pastFuture or past Now

3D

Core

Abstract

Abstract

Concrete

Future or pastFuture or past Now

3D

Core

Abstract

Abstract

Concrete

Future or pastFuture or past Now

3D

There is a difference between existence

and being.

Different cultures produce different kinds of people.

There is an eternal truth about man.

Man is a product of evolution and is

constantly changing.

• The man has an unchanging essence, character (essentia).

• Reason is the most important capacity of man.

• Reasonable people make the same choices because the recognise the essence.

• Everything is natural including man.

• Man is a species among other species.

• The difference between man and other species is one of degree.

• The purpose of man’s life is to actualize his natural potential.

• The man is a product of his society. The man is truly a person only after socialization.

• Our relationships with people have strong impact on us.

• Different cultures produce quite different kinds of people.

• There is more than one truth about what is the nature of human being.

Buddhism: • Detachment from thinking. • “Essence precedes conceptual

existence”

Existentialism: • “Existence precedes essence.”• Life is fundamentally meaningless and

absurd but one can give it a meaning, “life as art”.

• Cyranaics (Aristippos), Epicuros• Darwin• Natural scienctists• Many psychologists: Freud, Skinner,

Lorenz…• Early Wittgenstein, Dewey, Nagel,

Sellars, Quine

• Buddha• Pyrrho, Heraclitus • Nietzsche• Kierkegaard• Sartre• Heidegger

• The sofists (Protagoras)• Hegel, Marx• Most anthropologists: Frans Boaz, C. Levi-

Strauss• Most postmodernists (Derrida, Lyotard)• Hermeneutics (Gadamer, Heidegger to a

degree)• Many nationalists: Alasdair McIntyre• Social constructivism

• Plato• Descartes• Kant• Fundamenalist

interpretations of religions

Outcome

• Understanding the philosophical space helps you to – recognize philosophical notions– locate philosophical notions – compare philosophical notions to other notions– evaluate what kind of difference or similarity is

important and interesting– understand your own thinking better