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| Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
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Three men stand out when the topic of human nature is
discussed. Thomas Hobbes was a political philosopher who wrote Leviathan,
which described the development of humans and the most effective way to
govern. John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
addressed the best way to educate children in light of their nature. And
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile describes the course of educating a
young child.
These treatises were written between the 17th and
18th centuries during a time of great change in Europe. The new methods
of discovery brought about by the Scientific Revolution and the
enlightened ideas of the Age of Reason are prevalent in their theories.
The somewhat convergent themes that run throughout show where the world
came from and where it was headed.
These men, known widely for their political
philosophies, provided their views on the nature of humans in order to
decide on the most effective form of government for such beings. It was
necessary to understand what motivated people in order to decide what
was necessary for their governing body. These men sought to protect the
freedoms of the people by the use of laws. All felt that the authority
put in place to enforce the laws should be representative of the
peoples' needs and if it was not, it could be overthrown.
Hobbes contends human beings are basically selfish
creatures. He reasoned that they are driven by their desires toward
things that provide pleasure. Humans have an aversion to pain, which
they will naturally avoid. According to his theory, people vary little
in their powers and abilities at birth and the natural human is neither
good nor evil.
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| John Locke (1632-1704)
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Hobbes's political philosophy follows that humans
continually strive for what they want and struggle to keep it for as
long as they can. Other citizens are doing the same, which causes
constant collisions among those in society. All in all, the natural
human realizes that peace is the best condition for preserving life,
which is the other driving force, and bands together under the strict
authority of the Commonwealth or the state.
John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding was published in 1690 and is considered to be the
first European work on human cognition. It was used to explain the mind
and all of its operations. He starts by explaining that humans enter the
world with no pre-formed ideas or understandings. The mind is a "tabula
rasa" or erased tablet to be written on by the experiences of life.
For Locke, the only knowledge that humans can
possess is empirical knowledge. Therefore, everyone enters the world
equal; no one is more moral or more knowledgeable than anyone else. The
experiences encountered guide the behaviors of human beings. As a
result, positive experiences and education produce positive results;
negative experiences create the opposite. This belief is still widely
accepted today.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote his major works toward
the end of the Enlightenment. He sees humans as naturally good, although
he admits they are always vulnerable to vice and error. His plan for
education requires quiet and gentle nurturing so that children can
develop naturally and spontaneously into productive citizens.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's famous work Emile
describes the education of a young child growing up in the country.
According to Rousseau and the other philosophers mentioned, students
will learn and be molded by their experiences. Once again, experience
creates knowledge.
All three of these theories conclude the same
thing: Humans are the product of their environment. For Hobbes, the
nature of humans is neither good nor evil, but selfish. For Locke,
humans are born a blank slate, ready to be written on by the experiences
of life, and for Rousseau humans are good, yet corruptible and guided by
experience. All stress the importance of education and freedom, which is
a new turn in history that would later be widely accepted and form the
basis for democracy.
