The Fate of Nebuchadnezzar

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Tabb
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Future ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Fundamental Cause ◽  
Human Difference ◽  
Difference Makers

This paper makes a case for the centrality of the passion of curiosity to Hobbes’s account of human nature. Hobbes describes curiosity as one of only a few capacities differentiating human beings from animals, and I argue that it is in fact the fundamental cause of humanity’s uniqueness, generating other important difference-makers such as language, science and politics. I qualify Philip Pettit’s (2008) claim that Hobbes believes language to be the essence of human difference, contending that Pettit grants language too central a place in Hobbes’s psychology. Language is, for Hobbes, a technology adopted on account of curiosity. Further, curiosity is necessary not only for linguistic but also for scientific activity. Only after what he calls original knowledge has been gathered are names employed to generate the conditional propositions that constitute science. Finally, curiosity can resolve another puzzle of Hobbesian psychology that Pettit leaves unanswered: our tendency towards strife. Hobbes believes that insofar as human beings have an implacable hunger for knowledge of the future, we are unable to rest content with present gains and must always aspire to secure the best possible outcome for ourselves.

4. Religion

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-103
Author(s):  
James A. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Natural Religion ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

‘Religion' discusses Hume’s various treatments of religion, particularly in the essay ‘Of Miracles’, Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, and ‘The Natural History of Religion’. Hume's earlier writings show some interesting implications for religion, including A Treatise of Human Nature and the essay ‘Of National Characters’. Looking at ‘Of Miracles’ shows that Hume’s theme was not the possibility of miracles as such, but rather the rational grounds of belief in reports of miracles. Considering the Dialogues emphasizes the distinction between scepticism and atheism. Meanwhile, ‘Natural History’ emphasizes Hume’s interest in the dangerous moral consequences of monotheism. What is the future for religion? Perhaps Hume was unlikely to have supposed that his writings would do anything to reduce religion’s hold on the vast majority of human beings.

Urbanization Violence to Nature

2021 ◽  
pp. 141-155
Author(s):  
Aslı Güneş Gölbey ◽  
Ayşenur Kaylı
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Sustainable Lifestyle ◽  
The Future ◽  
Production Areas ◽  
The City

With the uncontrollable population growth in the cities, the rising need for settlement has increased the needs of the cities, as well as making the cities consumption centres. The housing intensity of urbanization were damaged at first, then the farms and agricultural production areas in the city periphery, and then it directly affected the natural resources such as air, water, soil, flora, and fauna. However, nature did not remain unresponsive to these events and responded to human beings with various natural disasters. Eventually, the human violence on nature has turned into the abuse nature exerts on human beings, with disasters such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, and fire as a kind of revenge of nature. The future of humanity becomes dependent on reconciliation with nature and adaptation to a sustainable lifestyle. This chapter examines the violence between human nature and urbanization with its causes and possible consequences and offers reconciliation suggestions for a sustainable life.

Hobbes's Modern Prometheus: A Political Philosophy for an Uncertain Future

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loralea Michaelis
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Point Of Entry ◽  
The Future ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
Dramatic Departure

Abstract. This paper takes the Prometheus story in chapter 12 of Leviathan as the point of entry for an examination of the importance that Hobbes assigns to the problem of an uncertain future in his political philosophy. Hobbes's thinking on human nature represents a dramatic departure from the ancients not only because his mechanistic psychology reverses the ancient conception of the relation between reason and passion but also because his understanding of the temporal situation of human beings privileges the future to an unprecedented degree. It is against the backdrop of a universe in which the problem of an uncertain future has reached intolerable proportions that Hobbes develops his portrait of human nature; it is against the backdrop of this universe that he develops his account of Leviathan as the only earthly power capable of stabilizing the horizon of expectation.Résumé. Cet article utilise l'histoire de Prométhée au chapitre 12 du Léviathan comme introduction à l'examen de l'importance qu'accorde Hobbes au problème de l'incertitude de l'avenir dans sa philosophie politique. La pensée de Hobbes sur la nature humaine constitue une dérogation spectaculaire par rapport aux Anciens non seulement parce que sa psychologie mécaniste s'oppose diamétralement à l'ancienne conception de la relation entre raison et passion, mais également parce que sa compréhension de la situation temporelle des êtres humains privilégie l'avenir et ce, à un degré sans précédent. C'est sur la toile de fond d'un univers dans lequel le problème de l'incertitude de l'avenir a atteint des proportions intolérables que Hobbes construit son portrait de la nature humaine comme un tourbillon de passions incontrôlées; c'est sur la toile de fond de cet univers qu'il élabore son récit du Léviathan, seule force terrestre capable de stabiliser les attentes de l'avenir.

scholarly journals The Review and Prospect of Marx and Engels' Educational Thought Research in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaodan Wang ◽  
Zhuoyuan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Educational Thought ◽  
Productive Labor ◽  
The Future ◽  
Different Characteristics ◽  
The Relationship

The study of Marx and Engels' educational thought has experienced different stages in China, different stages show different characteristics, and has made some progress in the aspects of “human nature”, “all-round development of human beings”, “the combination of education and productive labor”, “the relationship between education and various social phenomena”, and “the thought of moral education”. Looking forward to the future, the study of Marx and Engels' educational thought in China should be further carried out: the depth of text research, the strengthening of academic research, the emphasis of method research and the deepening of cross-research.

scholarly journals Shaping the Future Wisely

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
F Stuart Chapin
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Global Problems ◽  
The Future ◽  
Societal Challenge

This chapter describes a stewardship framework that would enable society to shift from a pathway of planetary degradation toward sustainability. During the time since about 1950—a blink of an eye in geological terms—the burning of fossil fuels has radically changed Earth’s metabolism. It’s not too late to fix this problem. Understanding and realigning the interactions between people and the rest of nature is the greatest and most urgent societal challenge faced by humanity. Both the causes and potential solutions to global problems are deeply rooted in human nature. Human beings are endowed with instincts to both compete for resources and care for others and cooperate so that all people may thrive together. Stewardship enables people to shape physical, biological, and social conditions to benefit both people and nature so that both may flourish.

Adaptations of Time Travel Narratives in Japanese Multimedia: Nurturing Eudaimonia across Time and Space

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Ae Lee
Keyword(s):  
Travel Narratives ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Life Styles ◽  
Concern For Others ◽  
The Future ◽  
Live Action

To displace a character in time is to depict a character who becomes acutely conscious of his or her status as other, as she or he strives to comprehend and interact with a culture whose mentality is both familiar and different in obvious and subtle ways. Two main types of time travel pose a philosophical distinction between visiting the past with knowledge of the future and trying to inhabit the future with past cultural knowledge, but in either case the unpredictable impact a time traveller may have on another society is always a prominent theme. At the core of Japanese time travel narratives is a contrast between self-interested and eudaimonic life styles as these are reflected by the time traveller's activities. Eudaimonia is a ‘flourishing life’, a life focused on what is valuable for human beings and the grounding of that value in altruistic concern for others. In a study of multimodal narratives belonging to two sets – adaptations of Tsutsui Yasutaka's young adult novella The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Yamazaki Mari's manga series Thermae Romae – this article examines how time travel narratives in anime and live action film affirm that eudaimonic living is always a core value to be nurtured.

Persons Together

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan L. Mittleman
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Market Relations ◽  
The Image Of God

This chapter moves into the political and economic aspects of human nature. Given scarcity and interdependence, what sense has Judaism made of the material well-being necessary for human flourishing? What are Jewish attitudes toward prosperity, market relations, labor, and leisure? What has Judaism had to say about the political dimensions of human nature? If all humans are made in the image of God, what does that original equality imply for political order, authority, and justice? In what kinds of systems can human beings best flourish? It argues that Jewish tradition shows that we act in conformity with our nature when we elevate, improve, and sanctify it. As co-creators of the world with God, we are not just the sport of our biochemistry. We are persons who can select and choose among the traits that comprise our very own natures, cultivating some and weeding out others.

Wer täuscht wen?

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Daniel Strassberg
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
The Self ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Narrative Context ◽  
Everyday Knowledge

The insight that human beings are prone to deceive themselves is part of our everyday knowledge of human nature. Even so, if deceiving someone means to deliberately misrepresent something to him, it is difficult to understand how it is possible to deceive yourself. This paper tries to address this difficulty by means of a narrative approach. Self-deception is conceived as a change of the narrative context by means of which the same fact appears in a different light. On these grounds, depending on whether the self-deceiver adopts an ironic attitude to his self-deception or not, it is also possible to distinguish between a morally inexcusable self-deception and a morally indifferent one.

The Nature of Degrowth: Theorising the Core of Nature for the Degrowth Movement

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pasi Heikkurinen
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Culturally Sensitive ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Radical Reduction ◽  
Nature Experience ◽  
Matter Energy

This article investigates human–nature relations in the light of the recent call for degrowth, a radical reduction of matter–energy throughput in over-producing and over-consuming cultures. It outlines a culturally sensitive response to a (conceived) paradox where humans embedded in nature experience alienation and estrangement from it. The article finds that if nature has a core, then the experienced distance makes sense. To describe the core of nature, three temporal lenses are employed: the core of nature as ‘the past’, ‘the future’, and ‘the present’. It is proposed that while the degrowth movement should be inclusive of temporal perspectives, the lens of the present should be emphasised to balance out the prevailing romanticism and futurism in the theory and practice of degrowth.

A Rapture of the Nerds? A Comparison between Transhumanist Eschatology and Christian Parousia

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-367
Author(s):  
Roberto Paura
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Point Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Species ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Universe

Transhumanism is one of the main “ideologies of the future” that has emerged in recent decades. Its program for the enhancement of the human species during this century pursues the ultimate goal of immortality, through the creation of human brain emulations. Therefore, transhumanism offers its fol- lowers an explicit eschatology, a vision of the ultimate future of our civilization that in some cases coincides with the ultimate future of the universe, as in Frank Tipler’s Omega Point theory. The essay aims to analyze the points of comparison and opposition between transhumanist and Christian eschatologies, in particular considering the “incarnationist” view of Parousia. After an introduction concern- ing the problems posed by new scientific and cosmological theories to traditional Christian eschatology, causing the debate between “incarnationists” and “escha- tologists,” the article analyzes the transhumanist idea of mind-uploading through the possibility of making emulations of the human brain and perfect simulations of the reality we live in. In the last section the problems raised by these theories are analyzed from the point of Christian theology, in particular the proposal of a transhuman species through the emulation of the body and mind of human beings. The possibility of a transhumanist eschatology in line with the incarnationist view of Parousia is refused.

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