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Do Humans have a Natural State?
March 28, 2016 at 7:11 pm
(This post was last modified: March 28, 2016 at 7:14 pm by Shining_Finger.)
This topic comes up fairly often in Philosophy, but I have never heard it being questioned.
Quotes such as "The Natural State of People are the Upper Class and the Lower Class, the Rich and the Poor" etc, enough for Communism.
Good and Bad, Corrupt and Naive, for example.
Or are Humans limitless in a sense that these natural states don't exist or can be overcame?
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RE: Do Humans have a Natural State?
March 28, 2016 at 7:36 pm
I'm wondering what you mean by "natural" in this context.
We have fossil evidence that Homo Erectus was caring for injured members of the group going back 2 million years. That implies at least a rudimentary culture and sense of a group.
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RE: Do Humans have a Natural State?
March 28, 2016 at 8:14 pm
(March 28, 2016 at 7:11 pm)Shining_Finger Wrote: This topic comes up fairly often in Philosophy, but I have never heard it being questioned.
Quotes such as "The Natural State of People are the Upper Class and the Lower Class, the Rich and the Poor" etc, enough for Communism.
Good and Bad, Corrupt and Naive, for example.
Or are Humans limitless in a sense that these natural states don't exist or can be overcame?
They're probably are some natural states of people, in my opinion, I don't know how scientifically proven they are. I remember reading a Collin Wilson book about crime which spoke about dominant 5 percent groups in populations. Along those lines I remember in part of the book he implied that this specific nature of human dominance could be manipulated, he spoke about removing the dominant 5 percent of prisoners from the general population in a POW camp eliminated escape attempts very effectively.
There maybe a pattern to all human nature in every scenario but with an animal as intelligent as a human there are so many variables in behaviour it would probably take an animal more intelligent and knowledgeable than humans are right now to be able to easily see these patterns of human nature.
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RE: Do Humans have a Natural State?
March 28, 2016 at 8:57 pm
(This post was last modified: March 28, 2016 at 8:58 pm by ignoramus.)
I believe there is a natural state given to us by our animal instincts/DNA.
Having said that, this natural state can be different between individual people.
You can't generalise about these things at such a granular level.
Eg: put 5 people in a jungle to survive, and one may try to kill the some of the others for his own personal short term benefit.
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RE: Do Humans have a Natural State?
March 28, 2016 at 9:13 pm
An argument can be made, that we are in our natural state.
Everything we have accomplished, good and bad, is a result of our naturally evolved brains.
We are doing what is natural, for us.
Just because we create artificial things, does not mean it is not our nature to do so.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
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RE: Do Humans have a Natural State?
March 28, 2016 at 10:28 pm
Every human state is natural. Look around, see what people are up to-- that's their natural state.
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RE: Do Humans have a Natural State?
March 28, 2016 at 10:55 pm
Natural state ?
Fat, dumb and happy.
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RE: Do Humans have a Natural State?
March 31, 2016 at 11:00 am
Define "natural state".
That doesn't really have any meaning to me independent of context.
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