Philosophy of Human Nature: Dualism, Ethics, Freedom and the Good Life

1. Plato Platonic dualism establishes the existence of a human soul and a body. The soul governs the body and is the element that grows and develops in human beings. Plato believed that human beings naturally live in society, and that the perfect society produces individuals who are also perfect. In his theory of Forms, the ideal world is governed by philosophers. In this ideal society, there are three social layers: the rulers (philosophers), the guardians, and the artisans. 2. Christianity Christianity came to this world with the idea of being created in the image and likeness of God. Christianity incorporated some basic elements of Greek philosophy, such as dualism and the immortality of the soul. Human beings are subject to sin, and the only way to be saved is by imitating Jesus. 3. Marxism Marxism contrasts sharply with Christianity through its assertion that ties and care are matters of this world: the idea of God is a belief in a first invention whose purpose is to control and pacify people. According to Marx, human beings who are enslaved must transform nature through their work in order to survive. This process is called labor; through labor, society is born from the need for collaboration. How the means of production are owned determines social relations: the social classes are the bourgeoisie and the working class, who are in opposition to each other. The ideal is a society in which the benefit of every job returns to the whole of society. 4. Psychoanalysis The human personality, according to Freud, is marked by phases in the first years of life, through which predictable patterns of behavior are produced: oral phase: Freud points out that the first phase is linked to the libidinal pleasure of feeding, centered on the mouth. Anal phase: it extends from approximately eighteen months to four years of age and is linked to the pleasure of expelling and retaining feces. Phallic phase: in this stage, the child's partial drives concentrate on the genitals. This is the libidinal organization in which the child's attitude toward the partial drives of earlier stages is completed. Latency period: this period, which lasts from about six years of age until puberty, involves the consolidation and elaboration of previously acquired abilities and traits, without any new dynamic developments. Puberty: puberty refers to the physical changes that transform the child's body into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. Freud was a deterministic and pessimistic thinker in his conception of human beings. For him, sexuality acts behind many of the things we do as humans. 5. Existentialism Sartre advocates atheism and indeterminism in his conception of the human being. This is a fundamental problem for human beings, since we assume we have no freedom. The good as pleasure: Hedonism Epicurus proposed a philosophy of individual liberation through exercise, and through autarky and ataraxia (serenity of mind) he aimed to reach a state of happiness. To achieve happiness, it is fundamental to free oneself from irrational fears. It is also important not to abandon paideia (traditional education in the classic Greek sense), because the values it transmits help people rise above the things that cause unhappiness. Epicurus proposed four principles for reaching a happy life: do not fear the gods; do not fear death, since death is nothing to us; it is easy to obtain what is good, and easy to avoid what is bad and painful; and pleasure is achievable and makes happiness possible. Epicurus held that the path to happiness is pleasure. This attitude, called hedonism, was defended by many thinkers for much of human history. Epicurean pleasure does not mean only physical enjoyment, but also the enjoyment of the spirit. Epicurus was especially interested in stable and lasting pleasures, characterized by the absence of bodily pain and mental disturbance. Friendship was for Epicurus one of the most important parts of happiness, a feeling that pleasure gives us. Care emerges in opposition to the ideal of reason, which has been the fundamental question of philosophy, giving preeminence to the world over care. In short, care is a theme of thought that must be considered. Determinism: every event, including all states and human actions and thoughts, is causally determined by an unbreakable chain of cause and consequence.

1. Animal rationale Greek philosophy attributed to human beings the capacity and value of thinking, which is the characteristic that distinguishes humanity from other beings. Rationalism holds that reason is the distinctive source of knowledge. Vitalism considers life to be the origin of all things and, as one of the central problems of Western culture, vindicates life and freedom of choice. 2. Animal emotionale Human life is psychic and full of affectivity. All human experiences have an emotional component; it is not possible to live without feeling. In the conception of the world, Romanticism exalted passion as one of the most important components of human creativity. Emotivism also rejects the attempt to build ethics on reason alone. The discovery of emotional intelligence vindicated the psychological realm, which contemporary thought has taken into account in its study of emotions. 3. Animal loquax The words we use to communicate allow us to do so better than other animals. Aristotle thought that the capacity to articulate thought through words was one of the defining characteristics of the human being. In the contemporary era, problems of vagueness and ambiguity have become central to philosophy, which has examined the ambiguities of language. 4. Animal sociale From the beginning, the individual is integrated into a social and cultural environment. Aristotle argued that this was a new stage opened in the evolution of the human being. There are two theories about the origin of society: the classical theory, which holds that society is natural and that human beings are naturally social, and the modern theory, which holds that human beings voluntarily agree to live together. The social contract is based on the establishment of a form of association. 5. Animal faber The human being is an animal that makes tools. Through its work, it modifies nature, and this process allows human beings to organize their collective efforts to meet their needs. Marxism presents human history as a process of class struggle and exploitation, and it considers social relations between employers and workers to be very different from one another. 6. Animal liberum Human beings have the capacity to determine their own destiny. Freedom is therefore the possibility that people have to choose the way they live their lives. Some authors argue that freedom is not an illusion, while others hold that nature limits freedom. This is known as the general position of determinism. 7. Animal spirituale All cultures have a spiritual dimension in human life, which is related to the idea of transcendence. In ancient times, it was believed that after death the soul continued to exist. The Greeks and Romans were among the first cultures to develop a political philosophy. Christianity and monotheism understood God as the creator of the universe, existing apart from the world in a way that is not bound to a body, and held that human beings live their lives on earth in preparation for eternal existence.