Thomas Hobbes describes man as solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Do you think he was right in his conviction about how man is arrantly selfish and nothing more?
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Sometimes yes, other times no. I tend to lose faith in humanity every so often.
Dorian wrote:
Short?
Ah, short-lived.
What is your sentiments on that quote? I think it is a rational belief myself. Most people would probably just say he was a cynic who couldn’t find beauty in the world. I think beauty exists in our world, but it seems as though people have a tendency to destroy it.
I think he’s taking a very one-dimensional view of man there. I’m also pretty certain “man” in this case refers to men rather than humanity. While he has a point that man’s baser instincts do lead to “alpha” behaviour, which could be described as solitary and brutish, he neglects to acknowledge that many of us have evolved beyond that level and are generally nicer than that. It’s a rational belief, but not necessarily a correct one.
Man may be all of these things, but he can also be creative, happy, determined, successful, compassionate, loving, loyal, honest, and resourceful; among other good things.
Nothing is inherently bad or good; there has to be balance.
My dad used to say that about my mother.
The element you are all missing is that there is no altruism. Indeed there has to be balance in order to give meaning and some may believe there is no good or bad, and your correct. Man doesn’t not cheat on his wife because he simply doesnt want to hurt her, but if she is hurt then he has to deal with he hurt. Therefore affecting him personally. You don’t give a homeless guy a dollar because he needs it. You give it to him because he needs it and if you don’t give it to him you may empathize/sympathize and affect how you are feeling. Giving him a dollar ill may you feel good about yourself.
Solitary in the sense that mankind cannot seem to always empathise with other humans.thusfore creating the problems we face like war,murder,etc
Poor,indeed ,we are poor,lack of morals would be the phrase to describe it.
Nasty,the point being that the human race is the most despicable around,they kill each other,they kill themselves,they kill the other creatures inhabiting this planet,the life that lives and grows here and no matter what they just don’t stop.
Brutish,same as the above.
Short,as another person has pointed out,short lived,yet humans don’t seem to make the best of what time they have,instead wasting it on petty things like money,drugs,etc.it could be interpreted as short as in short tempered,or of a short temperament,which sounds about right aswell.
Someone said,Humanity is the most inhuman race of all.
But its not all true,there is a large populace of this planet realising their faults and coming to terms with it,trying to make a difference by being none of the above as little as they can.So its not all bad,right?
No. I’m more Locke than Hobbes. After all, where does the impulse to do good come from? Most have it, if only in a form of guilt for not doing it.
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