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Paul Grobstein's picture

Human nature?

Submitted by Paul Grobstein on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 11:16am.

Have been enjoying seeing/reading your various thoughts on this topic. Thanks all. Let me add to the mix ...

"As for "human nature", a principal theme of this essay is that there is not one, at least not when looking from a sufficiently broad perspective. "I am, and I can think, therefore I can change who I am" (Grobstein, 2004a) and also change things around me as well. Yes, we all start with certain understandings, preferences, biases, and the like (disciplinary or otherwise), including perhaps a wish for something stable and certain on which we can build our lives. But we are also story tellers (see Grobstein, 2007; Rorty, 1999), and that gives us the capacity to conceive what has not yet been and, potentially, to bring it into existence."

For more along these lines (including references), see The Brain, Story Sharing, and Social Organization.

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