Nature, Culture, and the Foundations of Human Behavior
The Nature vs. Nurture Debate
Defining Nature and Innate Traits
Nature refers to what is not learned; it is what an individual possesses from birth and inherits genetically. Examples include:
- Walking upright.
- Having a specific number of fingers.
- Linguistic ability (the capacity for language).
Culture: Learned Habits and Social Norms
Culture refers to what is learned and acquired through habit and social norms. This includes utensils and tools, knowledge and beliefs, and forms of expression (art, science,
Read MoreMastering Effective Workplace Meetings: Structure and Efficacy
Defining the Workplace Meeting
A workplace meeting involves a group of people within the organization gathering to discuss specific aspects of the job or business operations.
Essential Requirements for Effective Meetings
For a meeting to be productive, several requirements must be met:
- Participation: Requires at least two people.
- Procedure: Requires a defined procedure, including preparation time and motivation of participants.
- Location: A suitable place must be designated.
- Common Theme: Participants must
Karl Marx’s Core Concepts: Work, Alienation, and Dialectics
Karl Marx’s Core Concepts: Man and the Essence of Work
Marx’s political economy views the worker as a working animal, reduced to the strict necessities of life, and considers labor as an abstract commodity.
For Marx, there is no human nature in general; man becomes himself through history by transforming society and nature. Man’s essential activity is work, which Marx sees as overcoming the conception of man merely as a theorist. Work places man in relation to nature and with other men. Nature appears
Read MoreThe Philosophical Problem of Evil and Theistic Responses
The Traditional Problem of Evil
The existence of God has sometimes been justified from a cosmological point of view (based on the nature of the world). There are some features that serve as evidence that God exists, such as the complexity of world order and its manifestation. But while the world exhibits order and beauty, it is also full of misfortune, adversity, suffering, degradation, and injustice.
Much of this evil is practiced by some individuals against others. But there is also natural evil,
Read MorePlato’s Core Doctrines: Areté, Justice, and the Forms
Reminiscence and the World of Ideas
The soul has been in the World of Ideas and can remember it through reminiscence. Hence the famous statement: learning is remembering. Using Maieutics (Socratic method), truths that were asleep within us can be extracted. The soul is a receptacle of memory, a memory that comes from a previous life of which we are aware.
The Role of Eros (Love)
Human beings desire what is beautiful and good. The soul yearns for love and momentum back to the intelligible world to which
Read MoreDescartes, Idealism, and Materialism: Foundations of Reality
René Descartes and Cartesian Dualism
Descartes, a prominent modern philosopher of the 17th century (Baroque era), argues that there are two distinct realities: a mental reality, known as res cogitans (the soul or thinking substance), and a material reality, known as res extensa (extended substance). His primary aim was to dismantle the false knowledge acquired through traditional schooling.
The Method of Doubt
Descartes created a new method in philosophy: methodical doubt, which involves doubting
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