The Essentialist Theory Of Nature: The Existence Of Human Nature

The term human nature is often thrown about haphazardly in everyday life. From phrases such as “it is just human nature for boys to like playing with trucks more than girls” to “it is human nature to want to protect yourself”, the term is used by many to imply that there are certain universal characteristics shared by all humans. The layman frequency of its use gives it a false facade of simplicity, rather, what human nature is, and even whether it exists has been and is currently hotly debated in the philosophical and biological communities. Those who support the existence of a human nature are often split into two camps; the essentialist view and the nomological view. On the other hand, some such as Hull are suspicious and pessimistic of

This poses a problem for the essentialist view because if the boundaries of a species cannot be concretely defined, if the definition of which organisms constitute the human species and when it started is not clear and in flux, how then is it possible to determine a set of traits unique to only humans, or any other species? In addition, if we are indeed all connected via the tree of life, it is likely that species share characteristics with each other, that qualities that may have been thought as uniquely human are in fact also observed in other species. This thought reflects what is in reality observed, common facets considered to be of human nature such as reasoning, use of language, and a sense of morality have been observed in other species. Moreover, there exist those we categorize as humans who do not share these traits. In sum, the essentialist view of human nature does not at all lend itself well to the modern understanding of evolutionary biology. However this does not mean that human nature ceases to exist, in fact, the nomological view accommodates modern evolution and combats arguments against any existence of human