Humans- Nature Vs Culture

[David George]

I think that whatever February Beetle has listed is correct.But I donot think that murder and other things are crimes naturally they do occur in animals so they do occur in humans.Telling that it is a crime is unnatural.We do need some unnatural things to live peacefully or we must live purely naturally.I think the second choice is better but is very hard to achieve as humans have developed so much.I donot think humans were meant to take care of nature.I think that humans destroy so much to simply get extinct.They donot realise what they are doing just like those herbivores that lived during the carboniferous period did.But still we have a hope to survive.This is due to our brain.

[February Beetle]

I am a pessimist, but that is too depressing to believe (for me) I guess I am only a pessimist half of the time. I believe that love is more than chemicals, I guess it is that kind of things too.

[alextemplet]

I'm more of a realist than anything else, sort of half way between pessimist and idealist. I think morality is very natural, since every culture follows more or less the same morals; perhaps these morals evolved to bring stability to human society, allowing primitive tribes to work together and survive better.

[Vincenze]

If Earth still bares life in 1000 years I'll look down from heaven with a very suprised look on my face.

Why is it humans' fault? Because we're the one's stuffing the place up. Simple.

Natural? Irrelevant philosophical debate.

We're screwing up the planet, we are the only ones who can fix it, or at least try. Who cares if beavers would do the same if they could...if they did then we'd blame them. Just like the Neanderthals that died out 'cause they were such good hunters... I guess we can always blame our oversized brains.

Vincenze.

[Linn]

Astus;

humans innately unnatural? What the #$!_at_#$ is nature or natural to begin with.

Well my 2 cents;
I think humans are natural for being
human. humans are social for one.
but they do not usually behave naturaly
if you were to look at it in the context of
natural as being the same as other animals. .
Humans have cognitive thinking that goes beyond
animals.

Societal views are of importance. if humans behaved primarily with instinct like animals would we have civilization?

[Vincenze]

Linn & Astus,

I would suggest that having advanced congnition, while it's a great thing to have, doesn't make us humans unnatural. We're still animals, just 'smart' animals, and we're still very much ruled by our emotions and instincts.

I think the unnatural statement refers to what we do with this extra intelligence or cognition. We break harmony with our environment, we pollute, we over populate and we farm.

So I would say it's more our actions and choices that are unnatural rather than our biology, though our biology permits it in the first place.

Vincenze.

[alextemplet]

Don't forget, experiments have shown that other animals are also capable of cognitive thought, some even as much as humans. Humans are just as driven by our instincts as anything else.

[Linn]

Do you think that humans can
choose over instincts?
we do it all the time,
keep ourselves in check KWIM?

[alextemplet]

It depends. With enough mental focus you can override instincts, and with enough training otherwise non-instinctive behaviors can become instinct. Military training relies a lot on this principle, since in combat there isn't enough time to think so soldiers have to rely on instincts drilled into them during training. So I think it kind of works both ways.

[Vincenze]

the notion of thinking rationally and with intellect is fine when you've got plenty of time to think...

but when you walk in on your partner with another person (ouch!)...your primitive instincts kick in...as they do in a fight...any really short term event that requires quick action or decision...this I beleive is impossible to override.

hell...they even call it temporary insanity we you kill the guy...perhaps it should be called temporary animal instinct!

gotta love adrenalin!

Vincenze.

[damien james]

Several posters gave reason as humankind has ability to choose right way to live without harming environment. Whether we do or not is not really pertinent to discussion, as long as ability still there.

[February Beetle]

Is the choice of overriding our instincts human nature? Batman could so override his instincts ninja-style.