Philosophy of human nature 1- Reason is the capacity for consciously making sense of things, for establishing and verifying facts, and changing or justifying practices, institutions, and beliefs based on new or existing information and It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, social science, language, mathematics, and art, and is normally considered to be a definitive characteristic of human nature .The concept of reason is sometimes referred to as rationality and sometimes as discursive reason, in opposition to intuitive reason. 2-Reason or reasoning is associated with thinking, cognition, and intellect. Reason, like habit or intuition, is one of the ways by which thinking comes from one idea to a related ideas. For example, it is the means by which rational beings understand themselves to think about cause and effect, truth and falsehood, and what is good or bad. 3-In contrast to reason as an abstract noun, a reason is a consideration which explains or justifies some event, phenomenon or behaviour .The ways in which human beings reason through argument are the subject of inquiries in the field of logic. 4-Reason is closely identified with the ability to self-consciously change beliefs, attitudes, traditions, and institutions, and therefore with the capacity for freedom and self-determination. 5-Psychologists and cognitive scientists have attempted to study and explain how people reason, which cognitive and neural processes are engaged, and how cultural factors affect the inferences that people draw. The field of automated reasoning studies how reasoning may or may not be modeled computationally. 2- Humanism is a group of philosophies and ethical perspectives which emphasize the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers individual thought and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) 1- Positivist social scientists use methods resembling those of the natural sciences as tools for understanding society, and so define science in its stricter modern sense. Interpretivist social scientists, by contrast, may use social critique or symbolic interpretation rather than constructing empirically falsifiable theories, and thus treat science in its broader sense. In modern academic practice, researchers are often eclectic, using multiple methodologies (for instance, by combining the quantitative and qualitative techniques). The term social research has also acquired a degree of autonomy as practitioners from various disciplines share in its aims and methods. 2- Positivism is a philosophy of science based on the view that information derived from logical and mathematical treatments and reports of sensory experience is the exclusive source of all authoritative knowledge, that there is valid knowledge (truth) only in scientific knowledge.Verified data received from the senses is known as empirical evidence. This view, when applied to the social as to the natural sciences, holds that society operates according to general laws like the physical world. Introspective and intuitive knowledge is rejected and Though the positivist approach has been a recurrent theme in the history of Western thought and modern sense of the approach was developed by the philosopher and founding sociologist Auguste Comte in the early 19th century the Comte argued that much as the physical world operates according to gravity and other absolute laws, so also does society. 3- Empirical evidence (also empirical data, sense experience, empirical knowledge, or the a posteriori) is a source of knowledge acquired by means of observation or experimentation.Empirical evidence is information that justifies a belief in the truth or falsity of an empirical claim. In the empiricist view, one can only claim to have knowledge when one has a true belief based on empirical evidence. This stands in contrast to the rationalist view under which reason or reflection alone is considered to be evidence for the truth or falsity of some propositions.The senses are the primary source of empirical evidence. Although other sources of evidence, such as memory, and the testimony of others ultimately trace back to some sensory experience, they are considered to be secondary, or indirect. In another sense, empirical evidence may be synonymous with the outcome of an experiment. In this sense, an empirical result is an unified confirmation. also this context, the term semi-empirical is used for qualifying theoretical methods which use in part basic axioms or postulated scientific laws and experimental results. Such methods are opposed to theoretical abinitio methods which are purely deductive and based on first principles.[citation needed] Statements and arguments depending on empirical evidence are often referred to as a posteriori (from the later) as distinguished from a priori (from the earlier). A priori knowledge or justification is independent of experience als whereas a posteriori knowledge or justification is dependent on experience or empirical evidence .The standard positivist view of empirically acquired information has been that observation, experience, and experiment serve as neutral arbiters between competing theories. However, that these methods are influenced by prior beliefs and experiences. Consequently it cannot be expected that two scientists (me and you katy perry) when observing, experiencing, or experimenting on the same event will make the same theory-neutral observations. The role of observation as a theory-neutral arbiter may not be possible. Theory-dependence of observation means that, even if there were agreed methods of inference and interpretation, scientists may still disagree on the nature of empirical data. 4- Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally, independently of the influence of culture. The questions of what these characteristics are, what causes them, and how fixed human nature is, are amongst the oldest and most important questions in western philosophy. These questions have particularly important implications in ethics, politics, and theology. This is partly because human nature can be regarded as both a source of norms of conduct or ways of life, as well as presenting obstacles or constraints on living a good life. The complex implications of such questions are also dealt with in art and literature, while the multiple branches of the Humanities together form an important domain of inquiry into human nature, and the question of what it means to be human. 5-Nature is a concept with two major sets of inter-related meanings, referring on the one hand to the things which are natural, or subject to the normal working of laws of nature, or on the other hand to the essential properties and causes of those things to be what they naturally are, or in other words the laws of nature themselves.How to understand the meaning and significance of nature has been a consistent theme of discussion within the history of Western Civilization, in the philosophical fields of metaphysics and epistemology, as well as in theology and science. The study of natural things and the regular laws which seem to govern them, as opposed to discussion about what it means to be natural, is the area of natural science. 6- Nature mean:(a) in one sense, the genesis of growing things in another, that immanent thing from which a growing thing first begins to grow.The source from which the primary motion in every natural object is induced in that object as such. All things are said to grow which gain increase through something else by contact and organic unity (or adhesion, as in the case of embryos). Organic unity differs from contact; for in the latter case there need be nothing except contact, but in both the things which form an organic unity there is some one and the same thing which produces, instead of mere contact, a unity which is organic, continuous and quantitative (but not qualitative). Again, nature means the primary motheds, shapeless and unchangeable from its own potency, of which any natural object consists or from which it is produced gold is called the nature of a statue and of gold articles, and wood that of wooden ones, and similarly in all other cases. For each article consists of these natures, the primary material persisting. It is in this sense that men call the elements of natural objects the nature, some calling it fire, others earth or air or water, others something else similar, others some of these, and others all of them. Again in another sense nature means the substance of natural objects; as in the case of those who say that the nature is the primary composition of a thing, Of nothing that exists is there nature, but only mixture and separation of what has been mixed; nature is a name given to these by men and women. Hence as regards those things which exist or are produced by nature, although that from which they naturally are produced or exist is already present, we say that they have not their nature yet unless they have their form and shape and observation to development. That which comprises both of these exists by nature; animals and their parts. And nature is both the primary matter (and this in two senses: either primary in relation to the thing, or primary in general ,in gold articles the primary matter in relation to those articles is just gold, but in general it is perhaps water—that is if all things which can be melted are water) and the form or essence, the end of the process, of generation. Indeed from this sense of nature, by an extension of meaning, every essence in general is called nature, because the nature of anything is (water)a kind of essence. From what has been said, then, the primary and proper sense of nature is the essence of those things which contain in themselves as such a source of motion; for the matter is called nature because it is capable of receiving the nature, and the processes of generation and growth are called nature because they are motions derived from it. And nature in this sense is the source of motion in natural objects, which is somehow inherent in them, either potentially or actually nature . 7-The philosophy of human rights attempts to examine the underlying basis of the concept of human rights and critically looks at its content and justification. Several theoretical approaches have been advanced to explain how and why the concept of human rights developed.One of the oldest Western philosophies on human rights is that they are a product of a natural law, stemming from different philosophical or religious grounds. Other theories hold that human rights codify moral behavior which is a human social product developed by a process of biological and social evolution (associated with Home). Human rights are also described as a sociological pattern of rule setting (as in the sociological theory of law and the work of Weber). These approaches include the notion that individuals in a society accept rules from legitimate authority in exchange for security and economic advantage (as in Rawls) – a social contract. The two theories that dominate contemporary human rights discussion are the interest theory and the will theory. Interest theory argues that the principal function of human rights is to protect and promote certain essential human interests, while will theory attempts to establish the validity of human rights based on the unique human capacity for freedom.1- Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally, independently of the influence of culture. The questions of what these characteristics are, what causes them, and how fixed human nature is, are amongst the oldest and most important questions in western philosophy. These questions have particularly important implications in ethics, politics, and theology. This is partly because human nature can be regarded as both a source of norms of conduct or ways of life, as well as presenting obstacles or constraints on living a good life. The complex implications of such questions are also dealt with in art and literature, while the multiple branches of the Humanities together form an important domain of inquiry into human nature, and the question of what it means to be human?...................
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 11:08:10 +0000
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