What is human nature? It seems a conundrum because the internet’s definition of it remains inconclusive. It’s generally meant to be the dispositions and attitudes we show via our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and actions. Let’s call them the four horsemen. We are indeed the sum of these horsemen, yet there is more. There is a fence of our environment, our circumstances and our abilities within which these horses reign leashed by our intellect, or unleashed by lack of it.
We can ride the horsemen but cannot override the fence. The former is within our volition while the latter is beyond our violation.
In our daily lives, we loosely use the term human nature as a description of someone like it’s his nature or that nature of a person never changes. Like other aspects we absorb from the culture and society, this also comes as a socially conditioned characterisation of someone. Till science offers a conclusive understanding of human nature, it will pass along as a generalisation. After all, it’s also in our nature! Isn’t it?
Like for most of history, the genesis of the concept of human nature goes back to ancient Rome. Philosophers like Socrates, Aristotle and those from the Hellenistic philosophies considered humans special due to our rationality and sociability, rooted in language and sophisticated communication. Our teleology! Some other species also have sociability and intelligence, as researchers have shown. Though it’s limited and inflexible in them. Our sheer scale and scope are unmatchable.
The historical development of the concept of human nature shows how complex it is. It’s a mouthful limited to the moral and political discussions with hardly any consensus. And it has more rejectors than the acceptors. Contemporary thought and the lens of modern developments- the rejection of teleology, evolutionary history, neuro & biological sciences- fails to form a coherent idea of human nature. The consequent pruning of the traditional views on human nature has some utility. It has highlighted the complexity involved in forming a concept. And its limitations. Human nature has many variables, which is fine like in other concepts, but these variables don’t have a pattern to make sense of.
Human nature as a concept is abstract and too subjective. There is a complex interplay between the four horsemen and the fence. On this planet, we are surely unique but too complex to be put into philatelic buckets. The anthropological and biological evidence negates the concept of human nature as irreconcilable.
One can understand someone’s behaviour based on what they display. But the hidden variables, or background story, behind that display often remains beyond grasp. This is equally true for the exhibitor and the observer.
The concept of human nature has a better home in the realm of metaphysics. It happens to suit other metaphysical concepts too. For example, it has a profound impact on ethics, as it shapes our understanding of what it means to be human and our humaneness. Firstly, it aims to highlight what is considered good or bad behaviour. Secondly, it helps to establish ethical standards. For instance, if humans are viewed as rational beings, then acting irrationally might be deemed unethical. But such a framework for how we ought to be is harder to realise.
What we are and ought to be are far apart. The former happens to overpower the latter often. Not that we can’t manage our horsemen, in fact the interplay of horsemen and the fence leaves us powerless to even want to ought. When the fence of external limits pushes, the horsemen have no clue what to do.
This is where the ancient wisdom of the east and the west brings solace. In the ancient Indian tradition, dating far back than any other civilisation, the Upanishads and subsequent six schools of philosophy offer more insight than any other text. This is the reason that eastern wisdom has taken over the west through the spiritual gurus.
Today more research is happening in managing the four horsemen. Psychiatry, biology, neuroscience, and gut science are the four lanes heading to reconcile the four horsemen. The four lanes can learn about the horsemen. That’s the knowing part of it, but equally important is the application part of it. The enthusiasts, mostly billionaires, have taken them on a mission to enhance their physiology. Advancing science has made it easier to edit and modify the genetic structure. Technological thrust has brought the brain within the scope of modification and tweaks- reference Neuralink by Elon Musk and similar.
In one of the greatest achievements of categorisation and mapping, scientists have finally published the Atlas of the Brain in October 2023. Originally, we were thought to have 300 different cells in the whole body. Shockingly, only our brains possess more than 3000 different cells. These have been put into 31 superclusters. Kudos to the Brain Initiative Cell Census Network, which is organised by the National Institutes of Health, in America.
This shows how far our gross understanding of mind and the body have travelled. Yet, the fundamental questions of inquiry into the mind remain elusive. Mind can make sense of the brain but vagaries of emotional and thoughtful eruptions within are a harder task for itself. It can sense them but cannot make proper sense of them.
Then there is the issue of altering human nature stemming from our moral attachment to certain aspects of what we consider to be human. These concerns do not necessarily require a full theory of human nature but reflect a desire to preserve what is seen as essentially human. I don’t carry the dictum that human nature doesn’t change. Personalities do evolve if one commits to upgrading, thanks to neuroplasticity. What remains the same over the millennia
are our primitive circuits of love, anger, sleep, stress, fight or flight response etcetera. But their power can be tamed by the latest addition to our brains- the prefrontal cortex- responsible for rationality and decision making. Thus, to stay the same begs an underutilised cognition. To grow and evolve is like trying your hands on the latest software update.
The idea of human nature as a theoretical concept might remain harder to reconcile, but our general sense of human nature can be made better or worse. If one aims to understand the self well, also replicated by others individually, then understanding our shared nature can become easier.
In improving with the help of our better brains, one can find certain refuge in spiritual practices for the mind, health-wellness discipline for the body, and etiquette for the social beings. I like the idea of Sara Jane Ho, world renowned etiquette coach, that etiquette is all about connection; much more than perfectly slicing a piece of cake or putting food into the mouth. Till science catches up, these fundamentals stay the same because they are timeless.
The intellect holds the leash, if our fences are beyond control, at least four horsemen can be tamed. To give more power to the intellect means to use it well daily to reign over the horses and it’s a lifelong work. This makes it harder, but it also makes us greater.