| 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] |
| 5276 | The nature of an individual coincides with what they produce and how they produce it [Marx/Engels] |
| 5281 | Consciousness is a social product [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] |