Quote:
Originally Posted by 15shooter  So, you believe that "nurture" wins out over "nature." I am inclined to agree with that up to the point where one of us gets "cornered" with no way out. Flight or fight is a conscious decision but our inherent nature is mammals fighting for survival. |
I believe that people have their own free will but that free will is limited and constricted by the society in which you live. I don't believe our inherent nature is animalistic because we are part divine. This sounds corny I know. But we can decide our fate unlike animals. We have the capacity to understand what is right and wrong unlike animals. We have the ability to control our nature to suit ourselves and survival unlike animals.
Quote:
It is not necessary for individual survival to belong to a group. But getting into semantics over what exactly constitutes a group could go on forever.  P.S> If you are saying that being altruistic separates humans from animals, fine. Otherwise, some of the most predatory animals travel in groups so being part of a group does not separate animals from humans.
|
I don't know of many hermits anymore. Everybody relies on some group to live. Ted Kaczynski even relied on society to survive teaching math inorder to eat. You cannot be a human being outside the context of society. You would be an animal. By group I mean any social unit. Altruism is not unique to humans however. Social animals exibit the same qualities instinctually.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason_els Animals can have favorite friends in their group, take on specific group roles, try to curry favor with high status animals, they can have enemies too and Jane Goodall even recorded a case of premeditated murder among the chimpanzees of Gombe. We're a lot more animalistic than we'd (at least some of us) like to think. |
Premeditated murder among the chimpanzees? huh amazing - can evil exist if you don't know right from wrong? I know tom cats kill kittens from other litters - would you say this is evil or just part of nature? I think evil is a human construct which only exists if you have a conscious. This is why mentaly retarded people who have killed are never put to death. The don't have the ability to understand right from wrong.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meniscus "It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the
great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being
fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being
fundamentally people." --Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens |
Very nice quote Meniscus. I still like your "people like the smell of their own shit" quote better though.