In Search of Human Natures

The fun part about being an anthropologist is that i get to pretend to know things about the nature of humanity. But the humbling part of being what i am is the knowledge that, despite whatever we as a species ‘really’are, we always manifest as individuals - sentient beings endowed with an inherent curiosity and idiosyncrasy which cannot be formalized – and which will continue to confound and invalidate any supposedly definitive narratives or labels we might create.

And that’s just how it is.

Cognitive Evolution and the Definition of Human Nature

By Merlin Donald, PhD.

Our society's collective definition of human nature provides a conceptual foundation for our ideas of human rights, individual responsibility, and personal freedom. Western society has traditionally derived its ideas in this regard from the liberal Humanities, which are the secular modern descendants of our earlier religious and philosophical traditions. They are the conceptual foundation of most of our laws and constitutional protections.

However, since Darwin, there have been many attempts to develop a scientific approach to defining human nature, and to deriving a new natural law based largely on the theory of evolution.

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