Description
Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1961. Arthur O. Lovejoy, beginning with his book The Great Chain of Being, helped usher in the discipline of the History of Ideas in America. In Reflections on Human Nature, Lovejoy devotes particular attention to influential figures such as Hobbes, Locke, Bishop Butler, and Mandeville, tracing developments and changes in the concept of human nature through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He also discusses the theory of human nature held by the founders of the American Constitution, giving special attention to James Madison and the Federalist Papers.
Table of ContentsPreface
Lecture I. The Self-Appraisal of Man
Lecture II. The Theory of Human Nature in the American Constitution and the Method of Counterpoise
Lecture III. The Desires of the Self-Conscious Animal
Lecture IV. Approbativeness as the Universal, Distinctive, and Dominant Passion of Man
Lecture V. The "Love of Praise" as the Indispensable Substitute for "Reason and Virtue" in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Theories of Human Nature
Lecture VI. Approbativeness and "Pride" in Political and Economic Thought
Lecture VII. The Indictment of Pride
Lecture VIII. Some Ethical Reflections
Index
