Download PDF On Human Nature Anthropological, Biological, and Philosophical Foundations by Armin Grunwald

Sinopsis

Nature has a double meaning both in everyday language and in philosophical terminology. When, far instance, one speaks of the nature ofthe matter, one means that which makes the matter in question into what it is, its essence. On the other hand, if one says that animals, plants, mountains are apart of nature, then one classes them with arealm of being that is there of its own doing, not made by humans. Also with regard to human beings, one can speak of nature in this double sense. The "nature of the human being" can refer to his or her essence, that which makes hirn or her a human being. But one can also speak of the nature of the human bcing in the sense that, by reason of his or her corporeality or embodiment [Leiblichkeit], he or she is apart of the realm of being to which animals, plants, and mounlains are also assigned. It is only in this latter sense that human nature is the topic of this article - even though at the same time, however, the question arises as to whether being natural lNatursein] is apart of the human being's essence.

As a philosophical term, nature - in Greek, physis - was originally, and that means among the pre-Socratics, a designation for being in toto. Not until Socrates' time, that is, with the Sophists, does a concept of nature emerge that develops contours through its contrast to social and handicraft doing or making by the human being, that is, in contrast to nomos and techne, and thereby becomes a designation for a part of being. In his inimitable way, Aristotle specifies in the Physics this division of being in reference to an example from the Sophist Antiphon: of nature (physei) is that being that has the principle of its movement and rest in itself, of ta'hne is that being whose principle of movement and rest is due to human beings. The principlc of movement and rest refers to the order of and reason for evolving and decaying, and even for the life process. If a bed made of the wood of a willow tree is buried, Aristotle says, then a willow tree will grow, not a bed. That me ans that, in terms of its material, this object is of nature, but in terms of what it is, its form, it is of human hand.' Human beings in their self-understanding and practice are at a central position in the above-mentioned formation of difference in being as a whole.

Content

1. The Nature of Human Nature: Ethical and General Issues
2. On Human Nature
3. Personalistie Organieism and the Human Social Animal
4. Genetics, Embodiment and Identity
5. Biology in Discourse: Biotheoretical Considerations on Human Nature
6. The Biologieal Fundamentals of Human Cultural Developments and their Unique Functional Integration
7. Three Seconds: A Temporal Platform for Conseious Aetivities
8. Gestalt Recognition and Internal Representation - AReport from the Philosophieal Laboratory
9. Between Natural Disposition and Cultural Masterment of Life - The Cognitive Seiences and Concept of Man in Contlicting Coneeptions of Scienes
10. Genotype and Phenotype: Genetic and Epigenetic Aspects
11. Genetic Determinism: The Battle between Scientific Data and Social Image in Contemporary Developmental Biology
12. Can we find Human Nature in the Human Genome?
13. The Nurturing of Natures
14. The Other Side 01 the Mirror: Methodological Reconsideration 01 Human Nature
15. The Burdon of Proof - On the Impossibility of Technology Assessment for the Human Genome Project
16. Philosophy and the Concept of Technology- On the Anthropological Significance of Technology
17. Human Cultures' Natures- Critical Considerations and Some Perspectives of Culturalist Anthropology

Click here to download