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Single Idea 5281

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / e. Human nature ]

Full Idea

Consciousness is from the very beginning a social product.

Gist of Idea

Consciousness is a social product

Source

K Marx / F Engels (The German Ideology [1846], §1.A)

Book Ref

Marx,K./Engels,F.: 'The German Ideology', ed/tr. Arthur,C.J. [Lawrence and Wishart 1985], p.51

A Reaction

This slogan has produced the sociological view of truth which has stood opposed to philosophy for the last 150 years. It would be silly to deny that there is a good point here, but equally silly to think that all consciousness is explicable in this way.

Related Idea

Idea 19745 The nature of people is decided by the government and politics of their society [Rousseau]

The 58 ideas with the same theme [human nature as source of good and bad]:

7362 Humans are similar, but social conventions drive us apart (sages and idiots being the exceptions) [Kongzi (Confucius)]
7991 Hate and lust have their roots in man's lower nature [Anon (Bhag)]
143 The two ruling human principles are the natural desire for pleasure, and an acquired love of virtue [Plato]
1763 Diogenes said a plucked chicken fits Plato's definition of man [Diogenes of Sin., by Diog. Laertius]
23398 Human nature is naturally compassionate and good (as a 'sprout'), but people may not be good [Mengzi (Mencius), by Norden]
5134 Perhaps we get a better account of happiness as the good for man if we know his function [Aristotle]
31 If bodily organs have functions, presumably the whole person has one [Aristotle]
5231 To eat vast amounts is unnatural, since natural desire is to replenish the deficiency [Aristotle]
22509 What is natural for us is either there at birth, or appears by normal processes [Aristotle]
5858 Men are physically prime at thirty-five, and mentally prime at forty-nine [Aristotle]
6559 Aristotle never actually says that man is a rational animal [Aristotle, by Fogelin]
20813 Human purpose is to contemplate and imitate the cosmos [Chrysippus]
5730 Our bodies weren't created to be used; on the contrary, their creation makes a use possible [Lucretius]
23340 We consist of animal bodies and god-like reason [Epictetus]
23366 We see nature's will in the ways all people are the same [Epictetus]
18464 Justice is each person fulfilling his function [Porphyry]
5764 When people fall into wickedness they lose their human nature [Boethius]
8019 Along with his pantheism, Spinoza equates ethics with the study of human nature [Spinoza, by MacIntyre]
17189 The essence of man is modifications of the nature of God [Spinoza]
17207 By 'good' I mean what brings us ever closer to our model of human nature [Spinoza]
17229 If infancy in humans was very rare, we would consider it a pitiful natural defect [Spinoza]
7667 There are two sides to men - the pleasantly social, and the violent and creative [Diderot, by Berlin]
22390 Kant thought human nature was pure hedonism, so virtue is only possible via the categorical imperative [Foot on Kant]
23234 I cannot change the nature which has been determined for me [Fichte]
21796 Man is God if he raises himself, by denying his nature and finitude [Hegel]
21379 Man's three basic ethical incentives are egoism, malice and compassion [Schopenhauer]
21483 Man is essentially a dreadful wild animal [Schopenhauer]
5281 Consciousness is a social product [Marx/Engels]
5276 The nature of an individual coincides with what they produce and how they produce it [Marx/Engels]
22086 The most important aspect of a human being is not reason, but passion [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
5298 The human essence is not found in individuals but in social relations [Marx]
23032 What is distinctive of human life is the desire for self-improvement [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
24093 We can aspire to greatness by creating new functions for ourselves [Nietzsche]
24121 Greeks might see modern analysis of what is human as impious [Nietzsche]
24107 Once a drive controls the intellect, it rules, and sets the goals [Nietzsche]
20128 Each person has a fixed constitution, which makes them a particular type of person [Nietzsche, by Leiter]
22503 Nietzsche could only revalue human values for a different species [Nietzsche, by Foot]
22344 Freud is pessimistic about human nature; it is ambivalent motive and fantasy, rather than reason [Freud, by Murdoch]
23060 The good is not relative, but is rooted in facts about human needs [Santayana]
23154 We divide mankind into friend and foe, and cooperate with one and compete with the other [Russell]
7517 I could take a healthy infant and train it up to be any type of specialist I choose [Watson,JB]
20756 Instead of having a nature, man only has a history [Ortega y Gassett]
23824 Where human needs are satisfied we find happiness, friendship and beauty [Weil]
7074 Man is a useless passion [Sartre]
6687 Man is the desire to be God [Sartre]
3843 There is no human nature [Sartre]
23687 Moral virtues arise from human nature, as part of what makes us good human beings [Foot, by Hacker-Wright]
5313 The rules of human decision-making converge and overlap in a 'human nature' [Wilson,EO]
5490 Essentialism fits in with Darwinism, but not with extreme politics of left or right [Ellis]
4132 The category of person is a weak basis for ethics, because it is not fixed but comes in degrees [Williams,B]
23110 Human injustice is not a permanent feature of communities [Rawls]
4366 We can't accept Aristotle's naturalism about persons, because it is normative and unscientific [Williams,B, by Hursthouse]
8048 When 'man' is thought of individually, apart from all roles, it ceases to be a functional concept [MacIntyre]
23090 Liberals assume people are naturally free, equal, rational, and morally good [Kekes]
5452 'Essentialism' is opposed to existentialism, and claims there is a human nature [Mautner]
7505 Many think that accepting human nature is to accept innumerable evils [Pinker]
6586 Cynics are committed to morality, but disappointed or disgusted by human failings [Fogelin]
20655 Humans have been hunter-gatherers for 99.5% of their existence [Watson]