A Multidimensional Understanding of Human Nature in Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy ¹

Abstract

A multidimensional understanding of human nature based on biology can provide a very useful framework of analysis and bring some understanding and coherence to the very fragmented perspectives within moral, political, and legal philosophy. A useful four-part framework of analysis can be based on the evolution of the brain as described by Paul MacLean (1973, 1990) and Sir John Eccles (1989). A similar pattern of development of our mental and moral capacities through experience in childhood was also described by Jean Piaget (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958) and Lawrence Kohlberg (1981). This multidimensional understanding of human nature considers the individual, social, rational, and metaphysical perspectives. Because this four-part multidimensional understanding of human nature is based on a naturalized epistemology related to the development of our mental capacities in both evolution and through experience, this pattern can be seen across a wide variety of disciplines. Medical ethics, US constitutional democracy, and legal philosophy will be used as examples of the usefulness of this multidimensional understanding of human nature.

Citation

Rutherford, J.H. (2022), "A Multidimensional Understanding of Human Nature in Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy ¹ ", Wohlers, T. and Fletcher, A. (Ed.) Biopolitics at 50 Years (Research in Biopolitics, Vol. 13), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 67-90. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2042-994020220000013005