WEEK 2: HUMAN NATURE

1. Language;
2. Reason;
3. The Aristotelian concept of man as zoon logon echon (rational, speaking animal);
4. The Aristotelian concept of man as zoon politikon (a political animal);
5. Living politically versus living collectively;
6. The reason makes individuals self-conscious;
7. Living politically means one to be self-conscious of one’s role in human society;
8. One can be self-conscious only by thinking abstractly;
9. To think abstractly means to extend one’s mind through language and reason, distancing oneself from one’s inner drives that demonstrate self-consciousness;
10. The constructive nature of human community to self-consciousness and vice-versa;
11. THE TENSIONED BALANCE THAT EXISTS BETWEEN THE SELF-CONSCIOUS INDIVIDUAL AND THE COMMUNITY CONSTITUTES THE CORE OF POLITICS;
12. The political life depends on the ability of people to conceive themselves as individuals within a community of individuals;
13. The latter depends on one’s thinking abstractly;
14. The endogenity problem between language and reason on the one hand and the existence of community on the other;
15. The sameness of zoon politikon and zoon logon echon;
16. Human beings remain animals: biology defines much of its actions.

HUMAN NATURE AND POLITICS
C.B. Macpherson: the overall merit of a theory largely rests on the depth of its insight into human nature.
1. Plato (427-347 B.C.E): an animal-like desiring part (merchants); a humanlike spirited part (soldiers); a god-like reasoning part (philosophers and rulers);
2. Thucydides (460-400 B.C.E): the strong do what they can and the weaker suffer what they must;
3. Augustine (354-430 C.E.): due to the fallible nature of mankind, the secular government is inherently unstable and doomed to disruption;
4. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74 C.E.): The government of a king is best because if follows the logic of nature;
5. Thomas Paine (1737-1809 C.E.): due to the social characteristics of human nature, government is necessary only to perform in “the few cases to which society and civilization are not conveniently competent;”
6. Madison (1751-1836 C.E.): because latent causes of faction are sown in the nature of man, we need some sophisticated architectural engineering of institutions;
7. Hobbes (1588-1679 C.E.): fear motivates man, thus making the human society anarchic; the only way out is to transfer individual sovereignty to the king and pledge allegiance to him.

GENES, MORES AND CULTURE/POLITICS
1. Political life, as various as it can be, cannot free itself from its biological foundation (consider the age limitation to participate in politics);
2. Yet these genes make political life possible (the genes that make as speaking and thinking/reasoning);
3. On the other hand, our political/social life has determined some of our genetic development (consider the case of the midwifery development and its impact on our genetic selection: while the growth in the brain size fostered the development of culture, some rudimentary culture was needed to foster the proliferation of humans with large, complex brains);
4. Hence, we have an endogenic/circular relation between genes and culture;
5. If genes provide the information directives for our organic development, mores provide guidance for our political life;
6. More restrict but also stimulate behavior (albeit the controversy that they create sometimes);
7. The relationship between genes and mores: genes keep mores on a leash; they enforce society to develop mores according to our genetic features, yet they do not determine the total variety of our cultural development (the cases of hair growth and sexual orientation; the case of marriage, family and education as mores developed to tackle with and also take advantage from the exceptionally long human childhood);
8. Yet we are not sure about the length of the genetic leash and its level of elasticity (consider the case of women and men genetic differences and how it is reflected in society);
9. Because of their brain biological complexity, human beings are genetically destined to develop cultural mores and technical means that challenge and stretch their biological propensities and capacities;Thus our genes allow/determine us to structure our lives by mores: these more affect our political life.

MEMES AND MORES
1. Richard Dawkins coined the term meme from Greek word mimeme (imitation); memes serves as units of cultural transitions;
2. Memes serve the cultural reproduction the same ways genes serve the biological reproduction;
3. According to Dawkins, memes leap from brain to brain in an imitation process; our influential acts propagate memes;
4. Memes reproduce much faster and solidly than genes; they can survive intact across countless generations (the example of Socrates genes and memes);
5. Like genes, memes produce mutations and hybrids (cultural differences and progress);
6. A method as a macro-meme;
7. A meme is alive not when it is fossilized but when it actively serves as a parent to the birth of new memes;
8. A meme as a general case of a more;
9. Mores, like genes, influence but do not dictate what we do (reaction range);Likewise, the mores of political theory do not prescribe or proscribe specific thoughts or action; they develop throughout different political lenses; they only influence the types of thought and behavior that individual acknowledge or ignore and accept or reject.