Human Nature

'Nature' is profoundly ambiguous in ordinary usage. On the one hand it refers to the often chaotic realm of meterological, zoological, and botanical events, and, on the other, to what is constant in an organism. Aristotle's Physics, from the Greek for 'nature', resolves the dichotomy, by positing that the ultimate principle of Nature is a 'teleological cause', the innate tendency of all motion to seek regularity, the ideal type of motion. In contrast, modern Physics, pioneered by Newton, inverts this hierarchy--while constant motion for him 'inertia', causality, i. e. Force, is defined in terms of acceleration. So, since all 'free' action, is an exercise of Force, where Freedom is a defining feature of higher creatures, such as humans, human Nature is characterized by irregular motion. On the other hand, the basic drive in humans is often said to be the 'survival' instinct. So, since 'staying alive' implies a constant motion, here human Nature is characterized by regular motion. For example, in traditional Evolutionary theory of Nature, evolution, a type of irregular motion, is held to be a means to natural survival, a regular one. In sum, the modern rejection of a teleological notion of Nature has fallen short of a coherent replacement. One clue to reconciling the various concepts is that acceleration and evolution are both types of increase. Consequently, the main obstacle to a harmonizing of Newtonian and Darwinian schemes is the 'survival' thesis of human nature, surely among the most deeply-ingrained and widely accepted of principles. Nevertheless, it fails to stand up to closer scrutiny. For example, the scientific data cited to support Darwinism apply only to the phenomenon of novelty, not to the presumption that once the evolutionary leap is complete, the new species aims to merely live on as such. In fact, the very concept 'continuing to live' is misleadingly indeterminate as to what 'to live' means, e. g. it does not preclude that 'to live'='to grow'. So, if Evolutionism were to jettison the extraneous 'survival' hypothesis, as well as its derivative principles, e. g. 'the survival of the fittest', and then be recast as an end-in-itself, systematization with modern Physics would be more feasible, and a univocal Modern concept of 'human nature' could finally be settled upon.