Understanding Of Human Nature Research Articles

What Modern Sports Competitions Can Tell Us About Human Nature

To fully understand human behavior, it seems inevitable to approach it from an evolutionary perspective. However, much of human behavior has been overwritten by culture and society, thus allowing little insight into how it might have evolved amid natural and sexual selection. Here, I argue that sports competitions, although a cultural phenomenon in themselves, strip away many of the cultural layers and reveal more primary, rudimentary aspects of human behavior. Fortunately, because they are ubiquitous, meticulously recorded, and often quantified in great detail, sports competitions provide a plethora of usable data. In this article I provide an evolutionary account of the cross-cultural existence and popularity of sports by reviewing evidence of four functional hypotheses that regard the omnipresence of sports as a by-product of fitness-related adaptations (skill acquisition and development, status seeking, courtship display, and coalition formation). Then I outline how the growing body of sports data and documentation can be exploited for increasing our understanding of human nature (e.g., on conflict and cooperation, lateral preferences, territoriality, and nonverbal communication). The article concludes by giving guidelines for future cross-disciplinary research to advance the understanding of how evolution has shaped human behavior.

Эволюционная, социальная и психологическая природа конфликта: Л. Гумплович и К. Лоренц

The paper examines the theoretical approaches of Ludwig Gumplowicz and Konrad Lorenz to analysis of social conflict. The comparison of their views elicits conceptual similarity of both theories: the resemblance becomes evident when the author places a special focus on such issues as the interpretation of war reason and the possibility of peace. The main thesis which is proved by Gumplowicz is that the appearance of humankind must be explained in connection with the latest inventions in different academic fields like biology, ethnology and sociology. It is the way that gives a possibility to avoid metaphysical interpretations and to approach to genuine roots of modern conflicts ― both group and national. Lorenz believes that aggression as a basic instinct follows to explanation of the genesis of human and animal ritualized behavior patterns. Blocking mechanisms of aggression had been formed during the evolution in purpose of avoiding consequences of intraspecific competition. In cultures of different nations there are also rituals which are dealing with inhibition and canalization of aggression. Due to this fact world of human culture also has evolutionary patterns of ritualized behavior in its origin. Besides this Lorenz considers that aggression must be taken into account when a conflict is analyzed as a psychological phenomenon. Both Lorenz and Gumplowicz stand on naturalistic positions of understanding of human nature and strongly believe in the inherent human belligerence. Thus, they explain the diversification of cultural and historical landscape and the nature of social institutions like morality, law and state.

Man or Machine? Liberalism Old and New: From Wilhelm von Humboldt to the Teachings of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich August von Hayek

The attraction of the Austrian school's liberalism lies in its seemingly clear-cut guidelines in deciding what the limits of government activities should be – namely, to provide security and peace, and to uphold the laws, especially property laws, all in order to ensure the unhampered functioning of the market system. In this paper, I argue that the Austrian brand of liberalism as represented by Ludwig von Mises (LvM) and Friedrich August von Hayek (FAvH) is as much concerned with checking and curtailing government activities as it is with regulating the human mind. Deregulation of the market and regulation of the mind go hand in hand with the instrumental expansion of market competition resulting in a specific mode of production and way of thinking. From an ethical point of view, the supreme role of market competition has to be called into question as it not only narrows the choices of feasible ways of life, especially to those not endowed with capital, but also conditions the way we think (mind control). To highlight this critique of the Austrian brand of liberalism I compare it to the perfectionism of the classic liberal thinker Wilhelm von Humboldt (WvH), whose liberalism is wrongly believed to be in accordance with LvM and FAvH's liberalism. WvH avoided formulating a liberal vision of a polity without a rich perfectionist conception of human nature. This conception provides the normative backdrop of his entire political thinking. Without WvH's finespun understanding of human nature and care for self-realization the reign of competitive markets transforms liberalism into an alienating force regulating the human mind in accordance with consumerism and, as WvH would say, turning man into a machine.

유가 천명의 역학적 해석 - 천명과 인성론의 관계성을 중심으로 -

The concepts of human nature, the main themes of original Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, are the problems that must be overcome through human character education, namely the recovery of human nature according to the absence of conscience. In the end, the right understanding of human nature was the starting point of Confucianism and the preparation stage for Statecraft, overcoming the inherent limitations of human beings through learning. Orginal Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism are basically based on reality or difference in the importance of metaphysical things. Orginal Confucianism completely reflected the times of reality, showing that it was trying to overcome the problems of human relations, social relations, and national relations of the time. Confucius's interests were also this point, and this was the specific realization of the practical appearance of life apart from metaphysical issues. Neo-Confucianism was the first step in overcoming the metaphysical theories of Buddhism and Taoism. It developed differently from the Orginal Confucianism, which was described by Dasan in that it compiled the studies and texts of Confucianism. In ‘I Ching’, dao is the main body of all things in heaven and earth. The rule of the world can be said to mean the actions of Providence. Therefore he who wants to rule over the world must save the dao, Those who seek to save the dao must save it, and when they realize that the heart comes from heaven, they need a restoration of nature to become one with the heaven.

Rethinking the Life of Mary, the Mother of Jesus

ABSTRACTAt church, we are told that Mary conceived and gave birth to Jesus the Son of God as a virgin, without having had sexual intercourse with a man. Based upon this, the teaching of the “virgin birth,” Mary has been venerated as the “holy mother.” It is said, especially when discussing the beliefs of the Catholic Church, that the more the image of the Divine was restricted to the one-sidedly masculine “God the Father and Christ the Son,” the more the veneration of Mary increased, complementing those images with a feminine representation of the Divine. And in the Protestant churches, while there is no veneration of Mary, the teaching of the “virgin birth” is still an important one. However, how many people really believe in the possibility of conception without sexual intercourse? And do they believe that God the Almighty can instantly create an “iPS cell” and therefore generate a state of pregnancy? Or do they think that for Jesus, the divine Son of God, it is required that he be born as the result of a pregnancy which has not involved sexual intercourse? What kind of concept of the Divine and what kind of understanding of human nature leads to this kind of thinking? I cannot help feeling that there is a great danger in thinking in this way and that there is a great danger in this type of faith. This article meditates upon Mary, with these thoughts in mind.

When both the original study and its failed replication are correct: Feeling observed eliminates the facial-feedback effect.

This article suggests a theoretically driven explanation for a replication failure of one of the basic findings in psychology: the facial-feedback effect. According to the facial-feedback hypothesis, the facial activity associated with particular emotional expressions can influence people's affective experiences. Recently, a replication attempt of this effect in 17 laboratories around the world failed to find any support for the effect. We hypothesize that the reason for the failure of replication is that the replication protocol deviated from that of the original experiment in a critical factor. In all of the replication studies, participants were alerted that they would be monitored by a video camera, whereas the participants in the original study were not monitored, observed, or recorded. Previous findings indicate that feeling monitored or observed reduces reliance on internal cues in making judgments. Therefore, we hypothesize that recording the participants in the replication experiments reduced their reliance on the facial-feedback. To test the hypothesis, we replicated the facial-feedback experiment in 2 conditions: one with a video-camera and one without it. The results revealed a significant facial-feedback effect in the absence of a camera, which was eliminated in the camera's presence. These findings suggest that minute differences in the experimental protocol might lead to theoretically meaningful changes in the outcomes. In our view, the theoretical and methodological approach advocated by our study changes failed replications from being the "end of the road" regarding entire fields of study into a new road for growth regarding our understanding of human nature. (PsycINFO Database Record

Ben Okri’s stoku, “The Standeruppers” (2017): The Frightening Irony of the Anthropocene

SummaryThis article is predicated on two principal sources: Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction (2014) and Ben Okri’s unpublished stoku, “The Standeruppers” (2017). It invokes Edward O. Wilson’s 2002 argument on the inherent dangers of the human trajectory: the irony of the survival of our own species. Kolbert dubs human[un]kind’s predatory proclivity that threatens creation, our “unnatural history”. Using Okri’s Olduvai Gorge inspired rock poems (Wild 2012) as allusive side references, the argument draws attention to his understanding of human nature and of humans in Nature. Both Okri’s stoku and his rock poems reveal the destructive nature of Homo sapiens, while subtly inculcating cosmic accord and natural harmony. In the context of the Okri oeuvre, my readings posit that the latter humanist strand awakens in the individual sympathies for all fellow creatures on planet earth, nurturing a sense of natural community. This viewpoint tempers the frightening irony of the Anthropocene or Holocene era in Yeats’s aphorism that “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”, by pointing to our animus/anima urges or the destructive/constructive dichotomy of human nature.

Symbolic Analysis of Animal Images in Edgar Allan Poe’s Works

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is an influential writer in the history of American literature and even in world literature. He is a novelist, a poet and a literary theorist, who is known as a pioneer of horror fiction, science fiction and detective fiction. The style of his works is unique and fills with rich connation and it involves dual personality and non-communication between people. In particular, the animal images account for most proportion in his all works, and this is the focus of this thesis. The present study is to analyze some typical animal images in Poe’s works from the perspective of symbolism. Animal images in Poe’s literary works are divided into two categories for analysis. One is about the real-world animals, which suggest the darkness and complexity of human nature and reveal people’s living state and psychological state. Poe uses these animal images as tools to show a certain person’s personality or instinct and manifest the inner world or spirit situation of social beings. The other group concerns the virtual unknown animal images, such as gold bug. In his works, Poe expresses the desire of mankind to know themselves and the world. This study is supposed to analyze the symbolic meaning and functions of animal images, weather the real ones or the imaginable one in Poe’s works, which is expected to expand the perspective of animal image analysis in Edgar Allan Poe’s works, and provide a broader development space for the study of Edgar Allan Poe. It helps to deepen readers’ understanding of human nature and human life in Edgar Allan Poe’s works.

The Desert

Calders offers three fables of speculative fiction, one that tells the story of a bereaved man who finds that he is clutching his life in his right hand and to open it is to let his life vanish, as well as the tale that tells of a man traveling back home to his wife amidst the desert and wishes that his house would materialize in front of him, which it does, sparking a ripple effect of disbelief and confusion that asks the man to ponder his own true nature. The last tale is that of a cold blooded murderer who is visited by Conscience and implored to spare his victim. All of these stories push and challenge the boundaries of our understanding of human nature and free will.

Islamic vs conventional Human Development Index: empirical evidence from ten Muslim countries

PurposeGiven the fact that the Islamic economic paradigm differs from the secular capitalist paradigm in terms of its emphasis on morality and spirituality, the author thinks that the current Human Development Index (HDI) does not capture human development from an Islamic perspective. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a paradigmatic, theoretical, and conceptual model for the suggested Islamic HDI (iHDI) and second, to present several proxy variables for multi-dimensional iHDI and test the proposed index through empirical data for ten Muslim countries.Design/methodology/approachThe author developed eight-dimensional composite iHDIs based on the understanding of human nature from the Tawhidi anthropology. These dimensions included physical, reasoning, spiritual, ethical, animal, social, deciding, and oppressive selves. The author measured them using nine different indices, three of which came from the conventional HDI (cHDI). The author then compared the rankings of those Muslim countries in iHDI to those in cHDI.FindingsThe iHDI rankings for all Muslim countries except two differed from those in cHDI. The difference was more substantial for countries with higher economic development. Thus, improved cHDI rankings for Muslim countries based on their economic development do not necessarily mean that they move toward ideal human development. This finding confirms the need for an alternative human development indexing approach from an Islamic perspective.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is likely to initiate movement to develop an alternative HDI from Islamic perspective.Practical implicationsThe paper findings have important policy implications for Muslim countries.Originality/valueIt is the first empirical paper showing how to develop an alternative HDI from an Islamic perspective.

Evolution, Altruism, and the Collective Superego

ABSTRACTOur psychoanalytic understanding of human nature is that humans are self-interested. However, this view differs with those of evolution, ethology, and neuroscience, which show evidence of a natural altruistic capacity. A theoretical foundation for this capacity can be found in psychoanalytic works, particularly those of Melanie Klein. An emerging understanding is that of an altruistic capacity that is induced and shaped by early experience and either fortified or corrupted by social pressures and mental processes. In individuals and in collective society, superego dictates can conflict with natural altruistic impulses. Recognition within psychoanalytic theory of a primary altruistic capacity is important, because we as psychoanalysts have an impact on individual and cultural self-perceptions through our treatment of patients and through our writings and therefore contribute to the shaping of values in our society.

The Socratic Teaching of Constructivism: A Reading of Pangle and Ahrensdorf's Justice Among Nations: On the Moral Basis of Power and Peace

ABSTRACTPangle and Ahrensdorf's Justice Among Nations: On the Moral Basis of Power and Peace has become one of the classic studies of international political thought. The account Pangle and Ahrensdorf provide of the Socratics resembles in places the concerns of constructivists, even though they never discuss the international relations theory of constructivism. With this in mind, I argue that their account enables one to glimpse what a Socratic teaching of constructivism might look like. What comes to the surface is that Socratic constructivism shares with contemporary constructivism a concern with rhetoric and the role of ideas, norms, and rules in international politics while nonetheless expressing reservations over the goals of general enlightenment and emancipation that some contemporary constructivists espouse. Instead, Socratic constructivism urges the practice of generosity in the realm of politics, whether domestic or international. This emphasis rests on the Socratic understanding of human nature and suggests that contemporary constructivists tend to expect too much from the human condition. As such, Socratic constructivism seeks to moderate the desire for enlightenment and emancipation through a respect for what is salutary within the moral, religious, and political identities of particular communities.

RECOVERING A CONFUCIAN CONCEPTION OF HUMAN NATURE: A CHALLENGE TO THE IDEOLOGY OF INDIVIDUALISM

The understanding of human nature (renxing 人性) in the Korean philosophical narrative has its background in and has evolved from the classical Chinese debate on this most fundamental theme. We must go back to this beginning in the Mencius in order to appreciate what is persistent and what is distinctive about this idea as it has been revisioned by Korean philosophers. In spite of Mencius’s rejection of tautological naturalism in 6A3—that is, humans are good because they are good—it is just such an impoverished reading of Mencius—xing is an unlearned given that makes us good—that not only persists but in fact prevails among commentators even today. Xingshan 性善 is a claim that in the contemporary interpretive literature on Mencius—both Western and Chinese alike—has almost ubiquitously been understood as “human nature is good.” Indeed, the uncritical assumption is that for Mencius xing references a universal, inborn, fixed, self-sufficient endowment that is defining of all human beings and that programs us naturally as human beings to be good in what we do. In this essay, I want to celebrate the attempt by our teacher, colleague, and friend, Angus Graham, to save Mencius from the familiar essentialist misreadings of xing—both the discovery and the developmental models—by pointing the commentarial tradition in the direction of a third position. Graham offers us what we would call a “narrative” understanding of xing in which person and world evolve together in a dynamic, contrapuntal relationship. The identities of persons are certainly grounded in the native beginnings of family, community, and environing relationships that need to be both nurtured and protected from loss or injury, but such identities only emerge in the process of these relationships achieving thick resolution as they are cultivated, grown, and consummated over their lifetimes. Their potential far from being a given, in fact emerges contrapuntally in the always transactional events that in sum constitute lives lived in the world.

Applying Behavioral Insights in Policy Analysis: Recent Trends in the United States

An understanding of human nature and of the motivations that drive human behavior have always informed public policies. The use of behavioral research in public policy analysis, which flows largely from social and cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, and other behavioral sciences, came into sharp focus in the last decade. Since then, policy initiatives incorporating behavioral insights have flourished, and thousands of research articles have been published on that topic. A lot of this research has focused on how behavioral insights used by governments at all levels can improve the delivery of governmental services and improve compliance and use of government services by the public. We review recent trends in policy initiatives that specifically incorporate behavioral insights in the United States and outline a framework for further integrating behavioral insights into the various stages of policy analysis and policy design.

What do people think about their general practitioners? Survey results comparing public opinion over 40 years from a community in Sydney, Australia

Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine the changes in the Australian public’s perceptions about general practitioners over a 46-year period.Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted to examine the perceptions of people regarding their general practitioners. The study replicated a study conducted in 1966 in Sydney, Australia which provided the baseline. The survey was sent by post to residents living in 42 suburbs in Sydney, Australia. Eight hundred electors were randomly selected from the Australian Electoral Rolls as recipients of survey. Analyses were carried out to compare the results of survey with the survey results of baseline study conducted in 1966.Results: Public perception regarding the doctor’s communication skills with patients have improved compared to 1966. However, the perception of doctors’ treatment skills and personal qualities and practice was lower than in 1966. Fewer doctors are perceived as having the wide range of desirable human qualities such as bedside manner, an understanding of human nature, truthfulness and honesty compared with opinions in 1966. Many negative comments were based on personal experience regarding difficulty of obtaining medical care on weekends and at night.Conclusions: Public perceptions of doctors have changed over the period 1966 to 2012. These changes may be due to a wide range of socio-economic changes and various shifts taken place in medical profession over 4 decades. The improvement in medical education putting more emphasis on communication may have resulted in doctors better communicating with their patients. Changes such as funding, corporate control of group practices, increasing levels of specialist referrals, high expectation and access to medical information and even the emergence of best practice guidelines may have contributed to a decline in public perceptions of general medical practitioners.

Myth Or Truth: The Apollonian And Dionysian In The Death Of Ivan Ilyich

In The Birth of Tragedy, Friedrich Nietzsche uses Classical Greek tragedies to break down the human experience into two dichotomic cultures: the Apollinian and the Dionysian. The Apollinian culture represents humanity’s tendency toward order, pattern, and rationalism, while the Dionysian culture represents humanity’s simultaneous urge toward chaos and emotional intuition. Whereas Classical Greece allowed for both to coexist and augment one another through Greek Tragedies, Western thinking and culture allows for no such fruition; instead, Western society heavily emphasizes the Apollinian over the necessity or acknowledgement of the Dionysian. In The Death of Ivan Illyich, Leo Tolstoy takes this cultural practice a step further, giving readers a glimpse into a society that denies the Dionysian entirely. Through the demoralizing decline and eventual death of Ivan Illyich, Tolstoy suggests that rejecting the Dionysian not only obstructs society’s true understanding of human nature, but makes it wholly unprepared to handle humanity’s most essential truth: its mortality.

The neurobiology of resilience

Neuroscience makes possible a new understanding of human nature. The practice of medicine is particularly stressful, and neuroscience helps explain why this is the case. When work is demanding and recovery poor, persistent stress begins to distort our view of ourselves, our patients, and our working world. Empathic doctors are safer, more effective and happier in their work, yet empathy fades as stress levels rise and this fuels the journey into ‘burnout’. If an unrelenting flight-or-fight mode makes us cognitively slower, less able to be empathic and communicative, family medicine turns into an overwhelming uphill struggle. Can this downward spiral be reversed? Resilience varies over time, depending on the balance of positive and negative influences; many of these needs being determined by our evolutionary heritage. A better grasp of current ideas about the interpersonal neurobiology of stress, emotion, social engagement and empathy can help us make sense of our predicament and find ways to embark on personal, organisational and cultural change. In challenging and stressful circumstances, if we can cultivate self-care and self-awareness, core values, and especially the ability to self-soothe, we may give ourselves a better chance to flourish both individually and as a profession.

A theological, ancient Hellenistic, and psychological look at the dreams of Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and chief baker (Genesis 40: 5-13, 16-18)

The intriguing study of dreams in the Bible has cut across not only some traditional fields such as biblical textual criticisms, comparative religions, philosophy, and genre writing analyses, but also psychoanalyses. However, psychological interpretation is still not underscored in Christian tradition. In this paper, first, hermeneutical exegeses on the biblical dreams and especially Pharaoh's chief cupbearer's (or butler's) and chief bakers' dream narratives (Gen. 40: 5-13, 16-18) are investigated. Second, the general meanings of dreams are defined and explained from some ancient Hellenistic philosophers', i.e. Aristotle, Cicero, Eusebius, Heraclitus, Herodotus, Philo of Alexandria, and Plato, understandings. Furthermore, special attention is given to Philo of Alexandria's hermeneutics on the two dream narratives. Third, it is the thesis of this paper that the two dream narratives are exceptions and can be also interpreted in the light of modern dream interpretation, especially Freudian, Jungian, and other psychoanalysis, as well as a cognitive judgment approach called the equate-to-differentiate model. Seeing them through the lens of psychology and for the first time through the baker's cognitive perspective can aid us in our understanding of human nature while enhancing the study of both traditional theology and psychology.

Chaucer’s Exchange in “The Shipman’s Tale”

Geoffrey Chaucer`s “The Shipman`s Tale” is characterized by an ambiguity of theme, which is dramatized through an intricate play of puns, double meanings, verbal complexity, and ambiguous characterization. This ambivalence is no doubt the sign of Chaucer`s encompassing understanding of human nature and of his poetic accomplishment. Being himself a product of his own time and society, nevertheless, he reflects in his poetry, here specifically in the “Shipman`s Tale,” historical and social characteristics of medieval England. His play of doubleness is not irrelevant to the idiosyncratic dual awareness of the medieval mindset. His ambivalence towards values his characters act out has its counterpart in the volatile society where the age-old feudal class structure was shuffling for change. And these uncertainties pervade the Tale especially with the complex word play and characterization. Thus, this paper argues that the Tale`s ambiguity of theme is a reflection of Chaucer`s time; that it is historically specific and socially determined. Furthermore, Chaucer, with his quick wit and understanding, captures distinctive marks of the emerging merchant class and dramatizes the new system of commerce where value exists only as exchange value, although he carefully abstains from explicitly either condemning or condoning the changing milieu.

Introduction to 'Crossing the Potomac: The U.S. Coup D'Etat of 2017'

Introduction to 'Crossing the Potomac: The U.S. Coup D'Etat of 2017'