Ten Theories of Human Nature

Rating:
Summary: Great introductory book
Review: I like the way the author analyzes the religions and thoughts that have influenced the course of world history. It doesn't compare one against the other so the reader is allowed to view the theory in a vacuum. I only wished that the author wrote a chapter on the importance of why we need to engage in such an endeavor that would set the trajectory of our lives. Great book!!!

Rating:
Summary: Great introductory book
Review: I like the way the author analyzes the religions and thoughts that have influenced the course of world history. It doesn't compare one against the other so the reader is allowed to view the theory in a vacuum. I only wished that the author wrote a chapter on the importance of why we need to engage in such an endeavor that would set the trajectory of our lives. Great book!!!

Rating:
Summary: Short, solid, still some surprises
Review: Socrates postulated that only the examined life was worth living. His great inspiring idea was that we can come to know the right way to live if we use our reason properly, and inquire in an open-minded, nondogmatic way.

In this spirit, "Ten Theories of Human Nature" does not restrict its inquiry to five major thinkers of the Western Tradition (Plato, Kant, Marx, Freud and Sartre), but includes three ancient religious traditions (Confucianism, Hinduism, and Christianity) as well as two scientific thinkers (Skinner and Lorenz).

Each of the ten theories is examined under four aspects:

(1) what is its theory about the world?

(2) what is its theory of the nature of human beings?

(3) what is its diagnosis of what is wrong with us?

(4) how can we put it right?

The result is a concise, well-balanced textbook with useful suggestions for further reading. It shows how the focus of each theory on different aspects of human existence branches out into elaborate (sometimes, arcane) systems of thought. It also illustrates how the dominance of very comprehensive theories, especially religious ones, is replaced in time by more scientific, narrow theories which increase our knowledge about human behavior in very particular, small aspects but tend to lose sight of larger, "non-scientific" issues.

While the authors claim at the beginning of their book to present "rival" theories, the book is actually open-minded about the contributions of each theory to the understanding of the human condition: they are adding up, rather than canceling out.

Meeting the ideas of Sartre, Skinner and Lorenz in the context of the book was an interesting experience for me. Surprisingly, I found that Sartre's ideas about freedom and choice could well form the philosophical basis of the main-stream American self-help book - a thought that any self-respecting French intellectual would definitely hate.

Rating:
Summary: A threshold to understand human nature
Review: The authors attempt to compress 9 philosophers' senses of human nature into a small book. These 9 philosophers are Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Jean Paul Sartre, B.F. Skinner, and Konrad Lorenz, Confucius, Hinduism and Kant. In hope of making the comparison among these philosophers to be clear, the authors examine each theory in terms of nature of universe, nature of humanity, ills of the world, and proposed solution to cure the world. In short, this book should be an excellent threshold for a person who wants to approach human nature