Being human is a kaleidoscopic affair

Abstract

This paper spells out the ways in which we need to be pluralists about ?human nature?. It discusses a conceptual pluralism about the concept of ?human nature?, stemming from post-essentialist ontology and the semantic complexity of the term ?nature?; a descriptive pluralism about the ?descriptive nature? of human beings, which is a pluralism regarding our self-understanding as human beings that stems from the long list of typical features of, and relations between, human beings; a natural kind term pluralism, which is a pluralism that concerns the choices we have in deciding how to apply the kind term ?human?; and an explanatory pluralism that results from the causal complexity of life. Because of the complexity of being human, which gives rise to these pluralisms, being human is, the paper claims, a kaleidoscopic affair, and one far from concerning the life sciences only.