Knowra Human nature Human nature Human nature is the set of capacities, dispositions, and tendencies attributed to human beings, especially those considered widely shared across cultures and history.
Blank slate : The view that people begin without innate mental content and acquire knowledge through experience. It challenges claims that stable human traits are present from birth.
Evolutionary psychology : The study of psychological traits as adaptations shaped by natural selection. It explains some recurring tendencies as products of ancestral selection pressures.
Aristotle : An ancient Greek philosopher whose work shaped Western traditions in logic, biology, ethics, and politics. His account of humans as rational and political animals became a durable starting point.
Political philosophy : The branch of philosophy that examines political authority, justice, rights, and the state. Accounts of human motives influence arguments for and against political institutions.
WEIRD societies : Populations that are Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic, often overrepresented in behavioral research. Their overrepresentation makes claims about universal psychology vulnerable to sampling bias.
Noble savage : The idea that humans are naturally good and become corrupted by civilization. It offers a more optimistic picture of humanity before social institutions.
Cultural evolution : The change and transmission of cultural traits across generations and populations. It shows how shared behavior can spread without being genetically innate.
Thomas Hobbes : A seventeenth-century English philosopher known for his account of political authority and human motivation. His picture of competition and insecurity made human nature a problem for political order.
Social contract : A theory that explains political authority through an agreement, actual or hypothetical, among people. It asks what forms of government people with particular motives would establish.
Cross-cultural psychology : The study of how psychological processes vary across cultures and what they share. Comparisons test whether proposed human tendencies persist beyond a single cultural setting.
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