The Human Nature and Free Will - 848 Words

The term â€Å"human nature† is vague and very broad, giving many philosophers the opportunity to try and apply a meaning to it. Throughout history, theories have ranged from having complete free will as a gift from God to having no human nature at all. Two particular theories that I’d like to analyze are Sigmund Freud’s psychological view and Aristotle’s ethical view. Although both Freud and Aristotle believe that the mind plays a key role in human nature, they differ in that one believes that there is no complete rationality while the other believes that rationality is our natural function. Sigmund Freud, one of the most well known psychologists to this day, was known as the â€Å"Father of Psychoanalysis†. The main focus of psychoanalysis was†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is nonscientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice.† Karl Popper said this in an excerpt from his book Conjectures and Refutations. What he means by this is that if a psychoanalyst is not able to come up with an experiment to challenge the plausibility of the theory, then it can’t be tested and therefore cannot be a scientific theory. One flaw in this theory is that Freud suggests that all children go through developmental stages that determine who they are as adults. The Oedipus and Electra complex are a major part of these stages and states that a boy will want to be with his mother sexually and a girl will develop what is known as â€Å"penis envy†. I, for one, can say that I’ve never had this happen to me and feel as though this can’t be said for all children, but more so for a select few that don’t have the same family structure as the majority. Also, Freud claims that we use â€Å"repression† as a defense mechanism to bury away terrible experiences and memories, but usually when a distressing event happens to someone they tend to remember it quite vividly. An example would be the death of a loved one or parents getting divorced. Surely a person is bound to remember such events and won’t forget about the any time soon. In response to this objection, one might say that thisShow MoreRelatedGrace, Free Will, and Human Nature: Three Significant Renaissance Writers1630 Words   |  7 Pagesof an ever-expanding population of the literate. With this widespread intellectual excitement came greater individualism, more celebration of human achievement, and stronger focus on the secular world—a major shift from the heaven-focused outlook of the Middle Ages, in which people felt they were little more than the feeble playthings of fate. But are human beings really able to change their destinies through their choices? Are they capable of good? 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