Quote:
Originally Posted by AJ_NETWORK
Man has long been trying to understand his own nature and the nature of the world around him, thus creating schools of psychology and philosophy.
|
Your point being... ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by AJ_NETWORK
Here's an interesting snippet from the wikipedia page on existentialism:
As Sartre writes in his work Existentialism is a Humanism: "...man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world?and defines himself afterwards." Of course, the more positive, therapeutic aspect of this is also implied: A person can choose to act in a different way, and to be a good person instead of a cruel person. Here it is also clear that since humans can choose to be either cruel or good, they are, in fact, neither of these things essentially.
|
Nope, apparently there's no "default" of "cruel or good" in human nature. I would argue, however, humans choose to survive in whichever environment or culture they're born and raised in, and thus can make a baseline determination of "do unto others" - which to me logically explains the actions of serial killers, rapists and child molesters despite our generally-held cultural values.
But Sartre and many post-existensialist philosophers do, despite themselves or as inadvertent extensions of their own philosophies, basically obviate their own arguments or rather statements exactly because of their standpoints.
:D