Two Orientations Toward Human Nature

1. Auflage 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7546-5552-7
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 238 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 513 g

Reihe: Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Philosophy

Our culture entertains a schizophrenic attitude towards human nature. On the one hand, egoism is held to be our most powerful motive, playing a crucial cultural role by explaining the appeal of capitalism and providing a foundation for individualism. By contrast much of the continental intellectual tradition speaks of wholeness and alienation, seeing human nature not as self-interested but as herd-like. Guldmann argues that this schism reflects two diverging conceptions of human agency, and that the attempt to locate human nature somewhere along a continuum between egoism and altruism presupposes a misleading picture of what it is to be a human being. The second, ’continental’ tradition is more illuminating because it recognizes that human beings are necessarily committed to some conception of the ultimately significant.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Guldmann, Rony

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie: Allgemeines, Methoden

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents: Introduction; The presumption of egoism; The ambiguity of egoism; Egoism's unofficial opposition; Egoism and heroism; A phenomenology of heroism; Heroism and human encounter; Heroism and individuality; Bibliography; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Rony Guldmann