Identifying the Human: A Problem-Based Introduction to Philosophy of Human Nature
Edition: 2
Copyright: 2020
Pages: 358
Edition: 2
Copyright: 2020
Pages: 358
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Human nature presents us with endless questions.
Are we merely animals, or is there something more to us than that?
What is the good life for a human being?
What is the relationship between body and mind?
What happens to us after death?
What are the roles of reason and emotion in defining human nature?
Am I the same person I was yesterday, last year, or when I was a baby?
Do we have free will?
What is love?
What is the meaning of life?
Along with many, many more.
Identifying the Human: A Problem-Based Introduction to Philosophy of Human Nature is organized in to units, each guided by an overarching question. The units open with an introduction to the question and a brief overview of the kinds of views represented by the readings. Each reading will in turn have its own introduction, giving some background information on the philosopher and the context in which he or she was writing, and sketching some of the main ideas to look for as you read.
Identifying the Human introduces readers to a sample of problems that arise from contemplating human nature. It invites the reader to do their own thinking about these problems in conversation with others who have thought about them as well.
INTRODUCTION: THE HUMAN CONDITION AND WHAT PHILOSOPHY IS
The Purpose of This Book
A Note for Instructors
Philosophical Basics
What Is Philosophy?
Philosophical Questions
The Philosophical Territory
Philosophical Methods
Summary
Further Engagement and Reflection
UNIT 1: HUMANS AS ANIMALS
Charles Darwin, from The Descent of Man
E. O. Wilson, from On Human Nature
Ruth Benedict, from Patterns of Culture
Darcia Narvaez, “The Co-Construction of Virtue: Epigenetics, Development, and Culture”
Randy Laist, “Why I Identify as Mammal”
Murtaza Mutahhari, from Fundamentals of Islamic Thought
Further Engagement and Reflection
UNIT 2: SELF-INTEREST AND THE COMMON GOOD
Plato, from Republic
Thomas Hobbes, from Leviathan
Aristotle, from Nichomachean Ethics
Theano and Periktione, Excerpts
Peter Kropotkin, from Mutual Aid
Anna Julia Cooper, from “Womanhood: A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race”
Virginia Held, from The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, Global
V.F. Cordova, from Ethics: The We and the I
Kao Kalia Yang, from The Late Homecomer
Further Engagement and Reflection
UNIT 3: REASON AND NON-REASON
Plato, from Republic and Phaedrus
René Descartes, from The Meditations
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, from “The Poet’s Answer to the Most Illustrious Sor Filotea de la Cruz”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, from Notes from Underground
Aaron Ben-Ze’ev, from The Subtlety of Emotions
Audre Lorde, “Poetry Is not a Luxury”
Tamar Gendler, “Alief and Belief ”
Further Engagement and Reflection
UNIT 4: SOULS
Plato, from Phaedo
Lucretius, from De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)
Aristotle, from De Anima (On the Soul)
Hildegard von Bingen, from Book of Divine Works
Walt Whitman, “I Sing the Body Electric”
Richard Kearney, “Losing Our Touch”
Buddha, “The Not-Self Characteristic”
Further Engagement and Reflection
TRANSITION: BICENTENNIAL MAN
UNIT 5: THE MEANING OF LIFE
Leo Tolstoy, from A Confession
Albert Camus, from The Myth of Sisyphus
Susan Wolf, “The Meanings of Lives”
Stephen Campbell and Sven Nyholm, “Anti-Meaning and Why It Matters”
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
Plato, Apology
Further Engagement and Reflection
Erica Stonestreet is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University in central Minnesota. She works primarily in ethics, thinking about the way relationships and identity shape our personhood. She compiled this book out of a desire to include a wider range of authors, and to knit the Human Nature course's narrative together in a way that unifies themes.