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Huan Yi
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since 2004-10-12
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Waukegan

0 posted 2012-11-05 07:06 PM


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Given the absence of external threat or coercion,
which is natural man more likely: selfish or self-sacrificing,
lazy or industrious?

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Brad
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since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705
Jejudo, South Korea
1 posted 2012-11-07 05:59 AM


What do you mean by 'natural man'?

Without a context, a society, a something that influences when and how DNA does its thing, the idea of a man doesn't make much sense.

I would argue that "man" is a social animal a la Clifford Geertz.

I suppose you could argue that 'man' is defined by DNA but I don't see how your culturally loaded terms follow from that. Without a culture, an environment, 'man' is a gene reproducing machine, nothing more, nothing less (of course, you need two for that and that gets us back to culture, doesn't it?).

Still, I understand the French influence here and wonder if you mean man in hunter/gatherer societies. For an interesting take on that, give "Guns, Germs, and Steel" a shot.  

Huan Yi
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since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688
Waukegan
2 posted 2012-11-07 06:54 PM


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I mean as Magellan and Cook found him in the Pacific.


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Stephanos
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since 2000-07-31
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Statesboro, GA, USA
3 posted 2012-11-13 08:15 PM


Man (humankind) is fallen in the Biblical sense.  In other words, there is a mixture of both kinds of things you mentioned (virtue and vice).  "The Knowledge of Good and Evil".  Most societies, primitive and advanced, contain some mixture of tantalizing possibilities, and frustrating failures.  I know of no civilization that hasn't demonstrated this.  I'm sure we all agree that technological advancement does not equal moral progress, and that "civilization" is misunderstood, thought to mean one thing when in fact it is quite another.  The noble savage is a myth, and so is the noble modern.  On the other hand the savage savage, as portrayed in popular art, is likely a myth too.  :-)  
Brad
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since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705
Jejudo, South Korea
4 posted 2012-11-14 08:20 AM


Wow!

We pretty much agree on this.  The cause, of course, is different.

Essorant
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since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769
Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada
5 posted 2012-11-15 11:48 AM


quote:
Given the absence of external threat or coercion



If there were such a life, I presume moral laziness and greed would probably increase.  If you didn't need to serve your stomach to survive, or wear warm clothes in winter to stay warm, or worry about your marriage with one woman falling apart because you love another woman too, losing a job because you don't do it efficiently enough, etc. If there were no "threat" of  losing something precious or important to us because of what we do or don't do, then the moral "standard" would probably become very weak.  


Huan Yi
Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688
Waukegan
6 posted 2013-06-05 08:20 PM


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I have read a biography of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and found his concept of a “Noble Savage” to be of a man who at birth and after was a man without conscience and thereby blameless . . .


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Essorant
Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769
Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada
7 posted 2013-06-06 02:29 PM


quote:
without conscience and thereby blameless . . .


Why/how would he be "without conscience" or "blameless"?

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