PHL244 H5S   Human Nature

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Course Description and Objectives

 

What is human nature? What makes humans different from animals? Are there uniquely human characteristics? And if so, are they universal and belong to us innately or are they culture-relative and depend on our upbringing? This course will provide a philosophical analysis of several classical responses to these questions and will reveal the mythological character of some of them. We will

read the accounts of human nature by some ancient sources and modern philosophers, and we will consider contemporary criticism of them. In the second part of the course, we will examine the significance of the evolution theory for our

conception of human nature, and we will learn some lessons from evolution concerning the nature of our emotions. Finally, we will deal with the contemporary debate between situationism and character-based theories regarding the existence of character traits.

 

The course will be organized in two relatively independent sections: the first section of the course will focus on classical myths concerning (a) the origins of human beings and (b) the relationship between nature and civilization; and the second part of the course will deal with two contemporary debates on human nature, namely, the debate on the universality of human emotions and the debate on the existence of character.

 
Proceso alternativo: Week 1. Introduction. Why is the question about human nature important for us? Our conception of human nature affects our conceptions of the good life and our views about the best political models. Our conceptions of the good life and of the best political models affect our conception of human nature. The dangers of the naturalistic fallacy: deriving an “ought” from an “is”. Two debates: universalism vs. constructionism, situationism vs. character-based theories. Part I. Myths Concerning Human Nature: Ancient and Modern Week 2. Ancient Myths of the Origin of Human Beings (I). Lessons from the Genesis. What is the specifically human condition before the Fall? What is the consequence of the Fall? How does it change the human condition? Readings: Genesis (selections); Augustine, The City of God (selec. from book 14) Velleman, D. ‘The Genesis of Shame’ (selec., from Self to Self, ch. 3, §§1-4, pp. 45-52). Week 3. Ancient Myths of the Origin of Human Beings (II). Lessons from the Protagoras. What is the human condition before Prometheus’ intervention? What is the present that we get from Prometheus? How does it change the human condition? What is the present that we get from Zeus? How does it change the human condition? Readings: Plato, Protagoras (selec.: Myth of Prometheus). Week 4. Ancient Myths of the Origin of Civilization. The nature vs. convention debate. What is human nature before culture’s intervention according to Callicles? Notion of pleonexia. What is the effect of civilization according to Callicles? What are Socrates’ views about the human condition? Diogenes of Sinope’s views on nature and convention: an alternative to Callicles. Readings: Plato, Gorgias (selec.), Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (selections from book 6). Week 5. Modern Myths concerning Human Nature and Civilization (I). Pessimistic views of the state of nature. How are human beings before civilization? ‘Homo homine lupus’. Why civilization and what are its effects? Readings: Machiavelli, The Prince (selections); Hobbes, Leviathan (selections). Week 6. Modern Myths concerning Human Nature and Civilization (II). Optimistic views of the state of nature. How are human beings before civilization? The noble savage. Why civilization and what are its effects? Readings: Butler, Sermons 1-3; Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, Book III, Part II, Section II, ‘Of the Origin of Justice and Property’; Rousseau, Second Discourse (selections). Week 7. Modern Myths on Human Nature and Civilization (III). Civilization and its discontents. Readings: Freud, Civilization and its discontents (selections). Midterm exam, in class. Part II. Debate on the Universality of Human Emotions Week 8. The Evolution Theory. Issues related to the expression of emotions. Issues about innatism. Darwin’s distinction between instinct and habit. Darwin’s discoveries about the expression of emotions Readings: Darwin, Ch. The Origin of Species (ch. 7) & The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (ch. 14: ‘Concluding remarks and summary’). Week 9. Debate about Universal Traits vs. Infinite Malleability in Human Emotions. Ekman’s conclusions from Darwin’s Expression: the Universality of Emotional Expressions. Readings: Ekman, P. ‘Afterword’ to The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals Week 10. ‘Blank slate’ views and Social Constructionism. Margaret Mead and Samoa. Readings: Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa (selec.) Week 11. Evolutionary Psychology and Ekman’s Affect Programs. Readings: Griffiths, P. ‘The Psychoevolutionary Approach to Emotion’ (What Emotions Really Are, ch. 3) Part III. Debate on the Existence of Character Week 12. Aristotle on Character. Notion of habituation: the good upbringing and the acquisition of ‘second nature’. Character virtues. Readings: Aristotle, NE 2.1-6. Week 13. Experiments in Social Psychology. Fundamental attribution error. Milgram’s Experiments about authority. Good Samaritan Experiment. Readings: Milgram, S. ‘Behavioral Study of Obedience’; Zimbardo, P.H. ‘A Pirandellian Prison’; Darley and Batson, ‘From Jerusalem to Jericho’ Week 14. The Challenge against the Existence of Character. Readings: Harman, G. ‘Moral Philosophy Meets Social Psychology’; Doris, ‘Persons, Situations and Virtue Ethics’. Week 15. Responses to Situationism. Readings: Sreenivasan, G. ‘Errors about Errors: Virtue Theory and Trait Attribution’; Kamtekar, R. ‘Situationism and Virtue Ethics on the Content of Our Character.’ Week 16. Final remarks.

 

 

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Schedule

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¨ Syllabus

¨ Tentative Schedule 

¨ Essay Topics

¨ Sample Questions for Final Exam

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Marta Jimenez ·  m.jimenez@utoronto.ca

Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto · 170 St. George St. · Toronto, ON, Canada - M5R 2M8

Course Information

Course Number: PHL244 H5S

Class meets: Tue. & Thu., 3:00-4:30, Spring 2009

Course Website: www.individual.utoronto.ca/mjimenez/HumanNature.htm

Instructor: Marta Jimenez (m.jimenez@utoronto.ca)

Office Number: NE281

Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:30 –3pm, and by appointment