The Duality of Human Nature

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12062736
AutoresTrudi C Miller (0000-0002-9519-392X, autor correspondente)
Ano1993
Volume12
Fascículo2
Páginas221-241
Data de publicação1993-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPolitics and the Life Sciences (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0730-9384 • E-ISSN: 1471-5457
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0730938400024175
OpenAlexW2586401202
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas31

To update the view of human nature that undergirds eighteenth-century British/American political economy, this article reviews literature from diverse subfields of psychobiology. Findings on the structure, function, and evolution of the human brain confirm the duality between reason and passion that is at the core of the science of Hobbes. Contemporary findings across fields indicate that people become emotionally attached to objects, including verbal abstractions, through experiences with pleasure and pain. In contrast, human reasoning is essentially scientific. The duality between passionate motivation and humanity's unique capacity for reasoning makes political science important. By applying the scientific method to the subject of politics, people can design institutions that channel quasi-rational behavior toward outcomes that are mutually beneficial, rather than mutually destructive. Defining human nature correctly is the key to political science, and Smith's addition of the passion of sympathy to Hobbes's narrow definition of human motivation is essential

Duality (order theory · Epistemology · Function (biology · Humanity · Passion · Pleasure · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Subject (documents · Sympathy · Computer Science · Cultural Differences and Values · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology