We will start with a broad (but short) overview which will help to place our investigations of ‘Universals’ and ‘Structures of Understanding’ into suitable contexts regarding ‘Human Nature’. Does our Way-of-Being in the World arise wholly from ‘Nurture’ or, behind the amazing diversity of Societies, Faiths and Polities that we have developed, is there a common, innate ‘Human Nature’ that conditions all of our Cultural behaviours? Assuming that there is, the publication by Leslie Stevenson in 1974 of the widely-read book ‘Seven Theories of Human Nature’ – since expanded to ‘Thirteen Theories of Human Nature’ by 2018! – raises the question: ‘Which, if any, of these theories is the correct one?’. With that background, this presentation will proceed to cover two areas of Human interaction with our World that can indeed be seen to be part of a common ‘Human Nature’.
First, we turn to Anthropology and to the ‘Human Universals’ that were brought to the World’s attention by Donald E Brown in his book of that name published in 1991. Such ‘Universals’ have since been widely attested through ongoing anthropological studies.
Secondly, Kant’s ‘Copernican Revolution’ – ushered in by his ‘Critique of Pure Reason’ (1781) – posited ‘Human Structures of Understanding’ – namely his Categories and Forms of Intuition – which we are all presumed to share. The advance of Cognitive Science and Philosophy since Kant’s time and the growth of ‘Evolutionary’ and ‘Embodied’ philosophy requires that we update our understanding of such ‘Structures’. Now – further – in recent decades, the advance of Neurological Science requires that we must update our updates! We will investigate these issues by looking at three areas of structuring: ‘Embodiment and Metaphor’, ‘Simplicity and Understanding’ and ‘Human Imagination’.