My attitude towards this is: so many scholars have failed to give a recognized answer to human nature, and our ability is of course far behind; But since there are so many answers, what's the harm of trying again?
The purpose of my discussion on human nature is: how to better explain, inspire, guide and organize human behavior, and how to better realize human existence. So I don't care how others understand human nature, but define human nature according to the following meanings:
Human nature is a fixed human nature, which fundamentally determines and explains human behavior.
Obviously, this kind of humanity has universal applicability to human beings and restricts human behavior in depth. This kind of humanity is not so much called humanity as "the natural law of human beings".
1. Does human nature exist?
(a) whether the same kind has the same nature? Is this nature abstract and universal?
People may never reach a consensus on this, but my understanding is that the same kind does have its commonness, universality but not abstraction. It is this universality that restricts them from "choosing" their own way of life.
From a big perspective, every specific individual, group, class, nation, country, etc. in history, reality and even in the future has its own characteristics. In that case, how can there be a universal humanity to restrain their behavior? It seems ridiculous.
However, if you only pay attention to the leaves of towering trees, you won't find them growing on branches; If you only see a branch, you won't find the big branch behind it. Only by looking for branches along the leaves and drying them along the branches can you finally find that they all originated from the trunk. By extension, they all come from the roots, from the earth, from the Milky Way and from the universe. ...
It is really ridiculous to study leaves with the method of studying the universe and the knowledge gained from it; However, it is equally ridiculous to see only the leaves and deny that they all come from the trunk. It is impossible for people who study philosophy to develop high-performance computers with their own philosophical knowledge; But people who study computers should not deny the necessity of philosophical research. The purpose and angle of the cover make it.
Different observation angles and research purposes are not only necessary, but also necessary; However, it is absurd to use this angle and purpose to deny another angle and purpose, and to use the conclusion drawn from this angle and purpose to deny the conclusion drawn from another angle and purpose.
The key to the problem is to choose appropriate research methods and perspectives for different and necessary purposes.
(2) Does human beings have the universal humanity as mentioned above? Yes
Although Marxism recognizes the existence of human nature, it denies the existence of universal abstract human nature: only from the perspective of human sociality and class nature can we get a correct explanation of human nature, thus asserting that there is no super-class human nature in class society.
I think different classes do have different behavior characteristics, values and even beliefs. If we only examine human nature from this level, human nature must be due to its class nature, so abstract human nature at this level does not exist. However, a few more steps forward, we will look for it from a more primitive place: don't these human natures with different classes have some * * *? A simple truth is that any existence, as long as it exists as a class, there will always be something * * *. Since human beings exist as a class, they must have the characteristics of * * *. Moreover, in these * * * characteristics, there are always some or some major aspects that fundamentally determine human behavior, thus constituting something that can be called human nature. From this, I think human nature does exist in the universe.
Everything in the world has its original foundation, and vivid social consciousness is ultimately subordinate to social existence. As people of the same kind, is there no * * * humanity?
Second, what is human nature?
Let's discuss it along the following lines:
Let's first examine whether things (including low-level animals except people) are sexual. I think there is: although there is no spirit, things have their nature, and the nature of things (physical properties) lies in "seeking my existence." A simple logic is: if the essence of existence is not to exist, then how does this existence "exist"? Why don't flowers grow in the desert? Why do flies have those eyes? Why don't rabbits eat grass near their nests? Why do foxes eat chickens and tigers eat people? Why ... in a word, it all depends on their requirements for survival. The nature of all things "seeking my survival" is thus contained in all kinds of creatures. It is the fixed nature of things and fundamentally determines and explains their "behavior". Therefore, physical attributes are for my survival.
The simple fact that man evolved from the hierarchy of things determines that human nature must have something in common with physical properties, so human nature should be related to "seeking my survival" And "begging for my survival", which represents the whole content of physical properties, is far from enough for people, because people and things are fundamentally different.
As I discussed before, from the point of view of essential existence, man is a dynamic thing (this "thing" takes the form of physical organization); The essential difference between people and things lies in people's initiative (people's innate, unique and purposeful creative spirit). Therefore, it is decided that human beings should not only pursue survival to realize the existence of their body tissues, but also pursue the realization of their spirit to realize their positive existence. Moreover, with the continuous evolution of human beings, relative to material existence, it will become more and more important to realize and possess human dynamic instinct, and even become the main aspect of "completely possessing human existence". In this case, simply "begging for my survival" (only meeting human material needs) is not enough to explain the whole of human nature, but with the development of human beings and the gradual improvement of their living conditions, its weight in human nature will inevitably decrease. For example, if you feed a pig, it will sleep. Where is he? Eat and drink enough and let people sleep "honestly"?
Then, what are the specific requirements of "the essential existence of complete owners"? It is that people's power instinct and material organization can be realized harmoniously at the same time, or even simply that "material and spiritual products are extremely rich."
First of all, the realization of body organization is relatively simple, as long as there are enough conditions for survival and continuation (attachment: Mencius can't even refute the "food habit" of Gao Zi, but I can tell him that food habit is indeed human nature, but it is not the whole of human nature).
Secondly, it is relatively complicated to fully realize spiritual initiative, because it requires two conditions: first, initiative is a spirit to be satisfied and a product to be enjoyed by it. For example, a music lover will not be satisfied unless you provide him with wonderful music. Secondly, initiative is a kind of creative spirit, which needs an environment where creativity can be displayed. For example, if you set a lot of rules for the creator, he will not be satisfied.
The above two aspects and the two aspects of dynamic realization are interrelated: without survival and its continuation, there is no activity, and active games create better conditions for survival and its continuation; Without a good dynamic environment, there will be no rich spiritual products, and the richness of spiritual products can create conditions for dynamic play. Only by creating them in a coordinated way can human beings develop themselves healthily.
If we use the word "happiness" to express the dual needs that people are born with, then we can say:
What is human nature? Answer: Ask me to be happy.
Is it that simple? It's that simple. Such a simple "seeking my pleasure" is precisely the unchangeable nature of human beings, which fundamentally determines and explains human behavior. So we say that this is human nature. It can even be said that the law of human "seeking my happiness" not only dominates human history so far, but will also be so in the future.
Perhaps, in the eyes of many people, this answer is too simple. But in detail, it actually contains a very rich content. Let's see.
Third, human nature and human existence
People and things exist in essence (we call them "people" and "things" respectively). What is the relationship between human nature and physical attributes?
Things that exist will inevitably seek the persistence of their existence, which is a physical attribute; By the same token, people who exist will inevitably seek better and more lasting existence, which is human nature. Therefore, human nature and physical property are only the external manifestations and inevitable requirements of human existence and material existence.
From another point of view, if there is no physical attribute of "seeking my survival", how can things exist? How to ensure their continued existence? By the same token, without the humanity of "seeking my happiness", human beings could not exist, could not persist and could not exist better. Therefore, human nature and physical property are the basis of human existence and material existence.
I think if we have to investigate who is in harmony with human beings and what is in harmony with nature, we can't get the answer, because such an investigation itself is untenable; Because sex and existence exist in every existence, if we look at all natural things (including human beings) from the perspective of existence, we can see "existence"; If we look at how everything in nature can exist and how it exists, we will see "sex". It's just a different starting point
If we think that "existence" is only an understanding of existence, then "sex" is the law of existence.
Fourth, humanity and initiative.
We know that everything except people is just a material reality in the sense of existence. However, while displaying material reality, people also display their own unique dynamic existence. So in the sense of existence, initiative is the most essential feature that distinguishes people from other things.
Except people, the essence of everything is "beg me to survive". But people's dynamic instinct makes human nature not simply "beg for my survival", but "beg for my happiness" with richer content. Therefore, in the sense of human nature, initiative is the most essential feature that distinguishes human nature from physical property.
Initiative itself is an important foundation of human nature of "seeking my happiness"; However, the initiative itself can make this kind of human nature have a completely different realistic performance.
From the human point of view, "seeking my pleasure" is bound to realize itself. Therefore:
We can call "seeking my pleasure" determined by "being human" as "free human nature", which is an inevitable requirement of "being human", not only reasonable, but also independent of human will.
The "free humanity" (manifested as different personalities) changed by the dynamic action can be called "egoistic humanity". Although its root still lies in human existence, its content has changed with human will.
The actual expression of human nature in reality can be called "realistic human nature", and its content is formed by the combination of free human nature and self-help human nature.
Whether it is self-sufficient, self-interested or realistic, its fundamental aspect is the same, that is, "seeking my pleasure"; However, its external manifestations may be quite different, through different ways of "seeking" and different contents of "happiness".
(2) Whether it is "seeking my survival" or "seeking my happiness", the word "seeking" only illustrates the requirements for the realization of existing things.
Conscious and energetic human beings have created the word "seeking" and given it a conscious and subjective color. Here, we give it a broader meaning.
For inanimate objects, "seeking" is "choosing", that is, a mutual choice between existence and nature. If the desert chooses the forest, it will destroy itself; On the contrary, if the forest chooses desert, the consequences are the same. As a result, they didn't choose each other for their own existence. What is the magic of the creator? Begging for my existence. Obviously, there is no "consciousness" (a term coined by human beings) in this choice. However, there is "consciousness", which is the endless movement law of nature. We might as well call it "natural consciousness".
When we use the word "Qiu" to analyze spiritual things, we begin to feel "logical", because the meaning represented by "Qiu" here is closer and closer to what human beings want to express with this word: "Qiu" is "Qiu". After the cold weather, the geese flew to the south. This case alone is enough to illustrate the "nature of geese" hidden behind Nanfei.
Our purpose is not to delve into physical properties other than human beings at all. The above analysis is to analyze human nature. People, the most advanced animal, what is their "sex" and its realization? How will self-sufficient humanity evolve into self-sufficient humanity under the dynamic action? What kind of human nature has evolved into?
Verb (abbreviation of verb) humanity and sociality
Since human beings entered the civilized era and began to study themselves, all the human beings they faced were in an organic social organization. Naturally, they came to the conclusion that man is a gregarious animal by nature. Marx once thought that human nature "is not an abstract concept owned by a person. In its reality, it is the sum of all social relations. "
Of course, "man is naturally a social man" is a reality. However, it seems that it is not enough to describe this reality, let alone regard sociality as human nature. This is because people's sociality only tells us that people can survive and develop only by relying on society. What we care about is why people are social people, what kind of behavior they use in society, and why they use this behavior to survive and develop. A "sociality" only points out the problem itself and does not tell us its origin. Therefore, we should investigate three issues:
What is the purpose of bringing human beings together?
What ability enables human beings to organize together?
How can we make them better organized?
The reason why I discuss human nature is to discuss these three issues, and I want to discuss the last one.
Through the investigation of human nature, it seems that "seeking my happiness" is the answer to those questions.
(1) Let's look at the first question: Why do humans organize together?
In the sense of existence, people and everything in the world are just a kind of existence. Existence is bound to seek its existence, so is man, and so is everything except man.
From the reality, the "free humanity" such as "seeking my pleasure" fundamentally restricts the starting point of human behavior: doing for yourself and not being others. People are like this, and so is everything except people.
However, manpower is not like cattle, walking is not like horses, bravery is not as good as tigers, and disability is not as good as wolves. The innate deficiency of human physiological conditions (manifested in material existence) makes them inevitably encounter great natural contradictions in the process of realizing themselves for their own humanity: simply "for themselves" can never be successfully realized for themselves; If you blindly follow the motivation of "doing for yourself" and simply act "doing for yourself", you will not be able to seek happiness, and even "seeking survival" will become a problem. So, how did they solve this contradiction? That is to say, in the competition of all things seeking my survival, in what way do our peers take the initiative, exist better and seek happiness? Ye Qun.
The choice of survival and the freedom of human nature to my happiness tell them that only when groups and groups are combined into an organic organization can the forces of different individuals be organically integrated into a collective force, so as to better seek survival and better realize human nature.
It can be seen that it is the comfortable human nature of "seeking my pleasure" that is the fundamental reason why human beings form organizations and then society.
From another point of view, only by forming a society can human beings ensure the realization of human nature: since human beings existed as a class, even in the evolutionary process before human existence, their "group" (sociality) has always accompanied them and become the most important condition for their existence. What's more, thousands of years of organizational life and social life have enabled future generations to live in an organized life from birth. This kind of organization and sociality, in turn, strongly influences and promotes people, so that we can't study people without society, nor can we discuss human nature without human sociality. Therefore, Marx said that in reality, human nature is "the sum of all social relations".
Of course, human nature inevitably leads to human sociality, and human sociality has a profound impact on human nature from beginning to end, anytime and anywhere. It is even the "essence" of human reality and an important symbol of the difference between people and things. But from the perspective of human existence and the realization of human nature, sociality is not the fundamental purpose, but only the means to realize human nature. That's all. No matter how strongly people's sociality affects their birth, existence and development.
Of course, if you take away people's social relations, people are definitely not people; However, if people's essential existence (active things) has "disappeared", then what is the significance of people's sociality, his complex and exquisite social relations and everything?
We have analyzed that there are many reasons for the alienation of human society, but taking means as the fundamental purpose may be one of the important reasons.
(2) How do humans organize together?
As mentioned earlier, the value goal of human organizations is humanity. However, we also see that there is a natural contradiction between the goal and the means to realize human nature: the goal of "for me" can never be effectively achieved simply by means of "for me" behavior. Therefore, in order to maintain human organization, we not only need that value goal, but also need a necessary ability: it enables human beings to coordinate many contradictory "for me" behaviors. In this sense, such ability is also the fundamental prerequisite for the existence of human organizations. So, do humans have this ability? Where does this ability come from?
There are many things that live in groups for my survival. Although I have not studied plants and animals, according to my understanding of physical properties, if trees do not form forests (thus further creating and strengthening conditions suitable for tree growth), it may be difficult to ensure the survival of individual trees; If wolves don't feed in packs, they may be extinct by tigers. I have to use many impossible assumptions here, perhaps because I am trying to find their inherent ultimate rules in the nature that has evolved to the present. However, their organization has not developed into the advanced form of human organization. What is the root cause?
All because they don't have the same survival ability as human beings: whether they live alone or live in groups, the means of survival of all things is nothing more than relying on the instinct brought by their own existence to choose and find in nature.
People are not.
I don't care how such a wonderful thing as human beings evolved to such an advanced level. I just see that this advanced animal has its unique initiative (purpose-oriented and clear creative spirit); I don't care where this initiative comes from or what decision it is. I just saw:
It is this initiative that enables human beings to "claim" happiness from nature. There are two main manifestations of "necessity": first, by using tools, creating tools, discovering and utilizing the objective laws of nature, and improving one's labor ability. Second, it can not only organize human beings, but also make their organizations more and more perfect, so as to achieve greater organizational effects.
It is this initiative that makes human beings naturally have that kind of organizational ability. Dynamic instinct not only makes people different from things, but also makes the realization of human nature different from the realization of physical attributes. Give it a try:
Six, comfortable humanity and selfish humanity
It must be noted that human sociality cannot be regarded as human nature, but it will have an impact on human nature. After the formation of human society, individual happiness will inevitably coexist with others and groups. Since everyone is asking for my happiness, there must be contradictions in the happiness of different individuals. At this time, the pursuit of my happiness, an unchanging, universal, abstract and transcendental humanity, will have infinitely rich natural evolution, and the result is self-humanity.
(1) When human beings face different kinds, asking for my happiness is manifested as "asking for our happiness"; When a country faces another country, seeking happiness for me is manifested as "seeking happiness for our country"; When one family faces another, asking for my happiness is "asking for my family's happiness"; When one class faces another class, asking for my happiness is manifested as "asking for my class happiness"; When one group faces another group, asking for my happiness is manifested as "asking for my group happiness"; When a family faces another family, asking for my happiness is manifested as "asking for my family happiness"; ..... In the end, when I face others, asking for my own happiness will be manifested as "asking for my own happiness".
In this sense, if the happiness of all mankind exists in the abstract sense, its fundamental basis lies in the self-happiness of each human individual; If there is super-class human love, its fundamental basis lies in human self-love
If we look at it from another angle, it is this kind of self-love that exists in every human individual that will produce a wider range and higher level of human happiness and human love.
(2) Secondly, after the formation of human society, due to the contradiction between needs and possibilities, there will inevitably be contradictions and conflicts between each behavior of "seeking my happiness". Therefore, in order to realize itself, free human nature has to take different forms of realization, and the dynamic instinct enables people to complete this influence on human nature. Theoretically, it has enough ability to change the expression of free human nature:
First, it can make people realize that only by working hard, creating wealth and seeking the happiness of others and society can personal happiness be better realized; It can make human beings give up themselves first in order to realize themselves and "be human" first in order to "be for themselves".
Secondly, it can create great spiritual strength and material wealth, thus changing the concept of happiness of human beings and making the same human nature show different personalities: it can not only lead the "comfortable human nature" to be benign, but also shape noble personalities such as "putting oneself before others, distinguishing between public and private, sacrificing one's life for righteousness"; It can also make "free human nature" flood to the extreme, creating inferior scum such as "every man for himself, the devil takes the hindmost, harming others and selfish interests, forgetting righteousness".
Third, it can form a huge social coercive force, and strongly constrain human nature within the scope allowed by human organizations.
(3) The above-mentioned performance of human nature tells us:
1. Although the free human nature of pursuing happiness makes the motivation of human behavior fundamentally located in individual and local interests, through the active guidance of human beings, a benign "self-humanity" can be created, so that human beings can make reasonable behaviors beneficial to themselves as a whole.
2. Although people's initiative can bring up the self-centered humanity manifested as noble personality, in terms of value, such self-centered humanity is naturally the most conducive to social operation. However, human beings cannot regard it as the basis of social operation. This is because: first, self-centered humanity originates from self-centered humanity, which is positioned above "for me"; Secondly, initiative can certainly create self-humanity showing noble personality, but it can also create self-humanity in the opposite direction.
Seeking my happiness is the natural expression of human nature. It doesn't matter whether it is good or evil. In other words, it can create both "good" and "evil", which depends entirely on how people's dynamic instinct guides it. This objective logic of the realization of human nature not only provides it with unlimited activity space, unlimited opportunities to create brilliance, but also prepares various traps for it to make various mistakes.
At this point, we can see: initiative makes people change from "things in themselves" to "things for themselves", which makes people different from existing things and human nature in physical attributes; But its function is to make the way of realizing human nature different from the way of realizing physical property.
(4) From this, I often lament the exquisiteness of nature: she makes everything in the world run freely according to her arrangement and always maintains a delicate balance.
I often lament the meanness of nature: on the one hand, she gives human beings enough ability to become "their own things" and to create brilliant achievements with their own abilities; On the other hand, she didn't give human beings enough ability, so that they could never handle what they created: how can human beings organize their behavior better?
Natural selection is always so reasonable: nature does nothing. Human creation is always unreasonable: it creates great material wealth, but it brings revenge from nature; They created all kinds of spiritual wealth and set all kinds of spiritual traps; They established an exquisite social system, but they also brought social oppression to individuals; ..... Human society is always alienated and always in a state of intoxication.
Perhaps, the original sin theory in the Bible really contains profound meaning.
(5) But I also firmly believe in human activities: since human beings can destroy nature, they should also be able to repair it; Since human beings have alienated the organization, they should also be able to overcome this alienation. We should work hard for this goal, and this generation, future generations and even the destruction of mankind should always work hard for it.
Although my research on human existence, my research on human nature, my thinking and my efforts are very weak and even absurd, the fundamental goal is here.
(6) To sum up:
When self-sufficient humanity wants to realize itself in a concrete way, and after self-sufficient humanity makes human beings form a society for self-realization, "self-sufficient humanity" in the sense of existence will inevitably evolve into "self-sufficient humanity" in the sense of reality;
First of all, in the process of its concrete realization, free human nature will naturally evolve into richer content.
Secondly, in the process of its concrete realization, free human nature will inevitably evolve into different concrete forms. Although this kind of "having to" is a kind of "helplessness", this kind of "helplessness" is also a natural requirement of human nature, because only by using these different concrete forms can we realize the freedom of human nature itself.
It can be seen that, just as human activities are bound to be transformed into social activities, the comfortable humanity in the sense of existence is bound to be transformed into self-interested humanity in the realistic sense. Self-interested humanity actually includes two contents: one is the natural expression of self-sufficient humanity, and the other is the influence of dynamic instinct on the realistic expression of self-sufficient humanity.
Seven, the realization of human nature
(1) Human nature is independent of people's subjective will: although motivation is strong, it is definitely not strong enough to subvert human nature, because motivation is one of the forces that cause that kind of human nature (without motivation, people become things and human nature becomes things).
Human nature is actually the natural requirement of human existence: only through human nature can human existence be realized most directly and perfectly; On the other hand, if human nature can be fully extended, human existence will be successfully occupied and realized.