Human Nature

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What is human nature? Can it be changed like liberals think or will it remain flawed and unchangeable like conservatives think? What about the nature of an individual person? Many classic philosophers agree that while behaviour can be adapted, ultimately a person cannot escape their own natures. Personally I feel the need to identify a person's nature quickly. I need a 'core' to that person. Looking at people and human history through aspergers honesty what is human nature?

Well, you might enjoy this excerpt from anthropology class and Monaghan and Just's Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford) - page 145:

"When someone begins a peroration with the phrase 'but of course it's human nature to ...'. start looking for the exit! Because what you are about to hear will most likely reflect the speaker's most deeply held prejudices rather than the product of a genuine cross-cultural understanding."

You'd probably enjoy an anthro class - I did. One thing that struck me is that so many of the theories I have that I am always been shot down for stating in NT circles are corroborated by anthropology. I'll just put this out for consideration: we with AS are accused of not having natural social ability, but I am wondering if the reverse is not true - do we see "too much"? I have read that we see "the absurdity" in human behavior - so, maybe it is so that we see what others are unable to see. Maybe the cues we "miss" are binding for people who "do them naturally" - because they are stuck by a process they cannot easily observe. I don't know if that makes sense, and maybe I need to have another coffee and stop theorizing - I just like playing with concepts. I do know I analyze people - people who interest me individually, society constantly.

I personally believe that human nature involves things that are fundamental. Something that draws us all together as people.

Maybe species recognition? All animals seem to be drawn to "their own kind." I am not being cheeky, I don't feel particularly human and I tend to observe things this way. One reason I don't get into discussions with NT's - it does not go over well.

Human nature, as I generally would define it, has almost nothing to do with the traditional liberal/conservative divide. There are some brain wirings that were pretty must the default wiring in (what would become) humans many years ago, and trying to act against them is not easy.

Aggression and status seeking, for instance, was why we're sitting in front of computer screens instead of eating tasty twigs in the forest while running from lions. You needed to have the desire to fight larger animals, and status seeking is a way to ensure that your genes will move to the next generation. After a couple thousand generations of this, it's pretty much hard wired.

Note that I say status seeking in general is hard-wired, different forms of it are not as hard wired as most people think.