The Duality of Human Nature

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12062736
AutoresTrudi C Miller (0000-0002-9519-392X, autor de correspondencia)
Año1993
Volumen12
Número2
Páginas221-241
Fecha de publicación1993-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPolitics and the Life Sciences (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0730-9384 • E-ISSN: 1471-5457
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0730938400024175
OpenAlexW2586401202
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias 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