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The Dual Nature of Humanity Explained

Man is a complex being that can exhibit both civilized and primitive behaviors. In times of peace, humans can focus on cultural and scientific advancement, which helps maintain civilization. However, war and violence bring out mankind's primitive, beastly instincts to fight and kill for survival or pleasure. Even in civilization, people sometimes cannot control their primal urges and prioritize their own benefit over community. This demonstrates that beneath civilization, humans still possess a domesticated but latent wildness that warfare and other crises can unleash.

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Juan Santiago Bosiga Jimenez
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72 views1 page

The Dual Nature of Humanity Explained

Man is a complex being that can exhibit both civilized and primitive behaviors. In times of peace, humans can focus on cultural and scientific advancement, which helps maintain civilization. However, war and violence bring out mankind's primitive, beastly instincts to fight and kill for survival or pleasure. Even in civilization, people sometimes cannot control their primal urges and prioritize their own benefit over community. This demonstrates that beneath civilization, humans still possess a domesticated but latent wildness that warfare and other crises can unleash.

Uploaded by

Juan Santiago Bosiga Jimenez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

"The truth is that to be a good man is much harder than to be a decent monster.

"

Humankind has been one of the most interesting and complex studying objects since human
beings began to wonder about world, universes and even themselves. What have been humans
trying to understand about themselves? Their behaviour as an individual, also as a community
and why do they act like that. So, many scientists and philosophers, actually more philosophers
have given to this questions such incredible answers, from the classics such as Socrates, Plato
and Aristotle, to the contemporary ones, Nietzche, Russell, Hegel etc. They have given to
humankind’s behaviour different characteristics and origins, that makes humans a kind of different
animal.

“Homo homini lupus est” is an ancient Latin proverb that means “man is a wolf to man”, this
proverb resumes the quote perfectly, because it refers to the primitive man, the humanity’s first
state, where no civilization was formed or structured and men had to fight for its survival, even
against other humans. It’s possible to say that this change a lot when civilization structures
appeared. Civilization allowed humanity to left that primal state, and start to be a well-behaved
animal, an animal able to understand its environment, that means human beings started to create
and improve science. But, What does all this have to do with the fact that man is such a good
beast? well, this civilized man just exists in peacetime, where they can just focus on arts, culture,
science's development and those things that maintain our primitive state hidden, and awake the
community feeling making humans more sensitive and sensible.

Despite being the most rational and civilized animal in the world, man is still It, just an animal.
As is said before, only in peacetime this “domesticated” and civilized animal (man) exists. In the
other hand is war, the event that is able to break free the beast, that primitive instinct, the one
that just wants to survive and fight for its own benefit. Of course, all this is covered under the
mask of fighting for a culture or defending its own territory, making war something “human”. All
along this event, men are able to develop certain like for killing, blood and making others suffer
and be miserable.

Inside civilization, there’s still sometimes where people just can’t hide or control their primitive
state, where the community feeling is subordinated to the own benefit and for them nothing
matters, but obtaining their own pleasure or satisfying their necessities. Nowadays, it’s possible
to witness all of this. The middle east wars, where the only thing that matters is the control of the
geographic zone, more than the human lives that are extinguished there. Or, every shooting in
American schools where shooters do it just for pleasure. This is a proof of why man is still a beast,
a domesticated and good one that can be imperceptible and hidden behind the good man’s facet.

As it was said, humans are complex animals, from whom it’s behaviour is pretty difficult to
understand, they could be civilized and “domesticated” to not being such a wild and fierce animal,
instead of that, to be a sensible animal able to wonder about itself. But sometimes, civilization
can’t control that beast. Of course, that there’s still too much to learn, investigate and discover
about human behaviour, and why its possible to keep our primal state controlled.

Juan Santiago Bosiga Jiménez 99082610665

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