Abstract
In some unique ways, each of us is like no other human being. In other ways, each of us is like some other human beings. And, in yet some other ways, each of us is like all other human beings. The question of the nature of human nature is captured in this final statement. In what ways are we like every other person that has gone before us and will come after us? This question is particularly relevant to the emerging field of hate studies. Is there an endowment with which each of us begins our life that is important in understanding how, and why, people hate?
Highlights
In some unique ways, each of us is like no other human being
In Evolutionary psychology (EP)–as conceptualized by psychologist Leda Cosmides and anthropologist John Tooby, two pioneers of evolutionary psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara–human behavior is driven by a set of universal reasoning circuits that were designed by natural selection to solve adaptive problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors.[2]
The conventional wisdom in the social sciences has historically been that human nature is a blank slate— an imprint of an individual’s background and experience
Summary
Each of us is like no other human being. In other ways, each of us is like some other human beings. Though, all social scientists have, and regularly employ, conceptions of human nature It is precisely these underlying assumptions that must be faced as we begin to establish the interdisciplinary field of hate studies. The concept of “instincts” was driven underground, to be replaced by other, more “scientific,” explanations for human behavior, like “motivation,” “drive,” or “reinforcement.” By the mid- and late 1930s, instinct theory and evolutionary thinking had all but disappeared from most psychological and social scientific journals. Such a belief system–inundating our methodologies, theories and interpretations–left generations of social scientists blind to the role of human nature in shaping our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The edges of this gulf, though, continue to move closer to one another As they do, the concept of a human nature has returned to the front of the academic conversation in the social sciences. What is EP and what does it have to say about the nature of human nature?
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