nature of man?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : History & Theory of Psychology : One Thread

I have a paper due on my view of the nature of man. i was wondering if and where any information on the view that man is good and through the environment turns corrupt?

-- Shannon LeDoux (southern_belle54@yahoo.com), February 19, 2003

Answers

The leading exponent of this view was Jean Jacques Rousseau. He's a pretty easy read, for a philosopher. Check it out.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), February 23, 2003.

One of the best summaries of views of the nature of persons is Robert Brodie MacLeod's The Persistent Problems of Psychology (Duquesne University Press, 1975). You're probably thinking of some view of a "blank slate" view of a child, affected by environmental influences. Your position seems to be one that says "nature is good" but environment corrups, so perhaps you might check out some discussions in a textbook or encyclopedia on the nature vs nurture controversy. You seem to want to take a kind of humanistic position, and may find some statements of this sort in various hunmanistic psychologies (again, the quickest way to get a sense of these is to read an article in an encyclopedia of psychology). The opposite position would be that of the Calvinists in theology (we are born totally corrupt) and the Freudians and Kleinians in psychology, who attribute a host of negative impulses to the newborn.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), February 20, 2003.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ