Essay On History And Human Nature

1715 Words4 Pages

The interrelations between history and human nature requires a detail understanding of what human nature is. In the bible, human nature is that which makes us distinctly human. “Our” nature is distinct from that of animals and other creatures, but whatever human nature may be, I believe human nature is universal which is still developing and can always develop further. For this essay, I’ve chosen to believe that history is the product of human nature. What lead to my belief was that there was no history to begin with, Harman and Gombrich tells a significant event including those that resulted in great change over long periods of time for large numbers of people and this is what made history. Today's culture and how it is set has been greatly …show more content…

Through our readings, we discovered Harman is a marxist and he comments on human nature briefly and not too abundant. He states that “successive societies and human history have been a result of an ‘unchanging’ human nature” that humans have always been greedy, competitive and aggressive that explains the “horrors like war, exploitation, slavery and the oppression of women”. From this, he argues that present day human nature is the product of our history. He believes that human nature is and has always been stagnant and that human beings have always carried out aggressive traits which have lead to fights and war thus creating our history. He was also greatly influenced by Karl Marx and from one of Marx’s conclusion, he discusses that “ideas by themselves cannot change society” so to understand society, we must see human beings as a part of a materialistic world in which Harman views and rejects all arguments. I searched Marx’s view of human nature and it was said that “our human nature was expressed in a drive to spontaneously and creatively produce products in a manner that is helpful to social and individual satisfaction”. Our individual satisfaction coming from the satisfaction of others in which I believe Harman thinks that

Open Document