Human nature, culture, anthropology, philosophy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Edgar Morin, existentialism, transhumanism, perfectibility, neoteny
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Abstract
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Abstract
This document explores the relationship between human nature and culture, discussing the idea that humans are cultural beings by nature and natural beings by culture.
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[...] - Is Man by nature a cultural being? Part Is Man by nature a cultural being? Notions addressed : Work/ Technique/ Nature I - ONE CANNOT SEPARATE THE BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN BEING FROM ITS CULTURAL EVOLUTION The fetal development of the human being is posterior to its birth; anthropological approach NATURE/ESSENCE « One is not born a man, one becomes one The nature of a thing supposes common characteristics to all individuals of the same species, of the same category. [...]
[...] In fact, we acquire an invisible heritage of millennia of human history. In childhood, becoming human takes shape. The animal is and becomes very little. Man is not or little, but becomes. Ex. : In the absence of culture, nothing much happens. The myth of the wild child (there are several) Victor of Aveyron + Dr Itard (F. BRUFFAUT L. MALSON). It is a child deprived very early of this environment, of any kind of cultural environment, of education. We find it later by chance. [...]
[...] Responsibility for oneself at the same time as for all other Men. Choice - Freedom « God does not exist" atheist existentialist postulate Definition of Man: "In choosing myself, I choose Man" Liberty : specific characteristic of Man, possibility of a deviation from what nature commands him to do This specificity implies choices with an anguish of necessity. Duty to choose ? can be a bad choice ? choose badly, error ? be responsible for my actions Man can no longer rely on anything. He must suffer the consequences of his choices. [...]
[...] Pressure on the child: if they want to wear a pink dress? Unable to accept differences. Ex.: In China, one would choose boys, where bachelorhood is prevalent. Welcome to Gattaca Medicine is no longer a medicine that heals, but a medicine of improvement. [...]
[...] Man is a being of reason whose purpose is to live in a city The question of perfectibility « Decreed that a man would not be born free, it is decreed that he would not be born a man. What Rousseau says is that Man is characterized by his quality as a free agent. Nature can prescribe nothing. It does not subject Man to any rule. It is in this gap that he can make with nature that he plays his freedom. A man who would be reduced to a slave would be a form of negation of humanity. [...]
