a great book with lots of examples from history.Giving enough perspective to understand why human does science.

This fascinating book consist on a compilation of the best writing on the subject of what is to be human. Since the books included here are the bible , other sacred books, Decarte, etc, it is absurd to rate the writer's talents. They have been established a long time ago. Therefore all merit goes to the editor who has done a briliant job selecting what was worth showing.

Socrates postulated that only the examined life was worth living. His great inspiring idea was that we can come to know the right way to live if we use our reason properly, and inquire in an open-minded, nondogmatic way.

In this spirit, "Ten Theories of Human Nature" does not restrict its inquiry to five major thinkers of the Western Tradition (Plato, Kant, Marx, Freud and Sartre), but includes three ancient religious traditions (Confucianism, Hinduism, and Christianity) as well as two scientific thinkers (Skinner and Lorenz).

Each of the ten theories is examined under four aspects:

(1) what is its theory about the world?

(2) what is its theory of the nature of human beings?

(3) what is its diagnosis of what is wrong with us?

(4) how can we put it right?

The result is a concise, well-balanced textbook with useful suggestions for further reading. It shows how the focus of each theory on different aspects of human existence branches out into elaborate (sometimes, arcane) systems of thought. It also illustrates how the dominance of very comprehensive theories, especially religious ones, is replaced in time by more scientific, narrow theories which increase our knowledge about human behavior in very particular, small aspects but tend to lose sight of larger, "non-scientific" issues.

While the authors claim at the beginning of their book to present "rival" theories, the book is actually open-minded about the contributions of each theory to the understanding of the human condition: they are adding up, rather than canceling out.

Meeting the ideas of Sartre, Skinner and Lorenz in the context of the book was an interesting experience for me. Surprisingly, I found that Sartre's ideas about freedom and choice could well form the philosophical basis of the main-stream American self-help book - a thought that any self-respecting French intellectual would definitely hate.

The authors attempt to compress 9 philosophers' senses of human nature into a small book. These 9 philosophers are Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Jean Paul Sartre, B.F. Skinner, and Konrad Lorenz, Confucius, Hinduism and Kant. In hope of making the comparison among these philosophers to be clear, the authors examine each theory in terms of nature of universe, nature of humanity, ills of the world, and proposed solution to cure the world. In short, this book should be an excellent threshold for a person who wants to approach human nature

I like the way the author analyzes the religions and thoughts that have influenced the course of world history. It doesn't compare one against the other so the reader is allowed to view the theory in a vacuum. I only wished that the author wrote a chapter on the importance of why we need to engage in such an endeavor that would set the trajectory of our lives. Great book!!!

Brief and interesting survey of seven theories of human nature: Christianity, Freud, Lorenz, Marx, Sartre, Skinner, and Plato. Interesting here that all except Christianity are named after a famous thinker.

Presentation of Christianity is difficult due to which confessional's bodies view does one use? Seems to gravitate towards the modernistic one which critiques the historical faith given to the patriarchs and prophets and handed down to the church of the apostles by the Incarnate Word and His appointed apostles. Creation and original sin are put over as unreasonable accounts to be thought of as historical. However, much to the author's credit he admits that essential to this view is the prescription which finds its cure to original sin and the breaking of the relationship between holy God and sinful human to be God's doing--incarnation and atonement. These he scoffs as being unrational, but also outside skepticism since the revelation states them as so. Oh so close!

Freedom of the will is still major stumbling block. Statements that rational people still believe in this despite all its glowing problems as people still like the culture it produces. Fact is, many very rational thinkers believe that God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and the way to think is to let God metamorphosize our thinking by His Word.

Arrogantly and presumptively assumes in many places (e.g. in Lorenz' section especially) that the fossil collection in possession is certain factual evidence for evolution. Notice that the years have not been kind to such as these who want to jump to conclusions when all the judging of the evidence is not in.

Enjoyed his analysis overall much. Doesn't profess to even begin to get into the details, just an excellent overall sketch about the diagnosis, prescription for each of the seven. Wish he would have represented historical, orthodox Christianity better. See "Not the Way It's Supposed to Be" by Plantinga as a corrective starting point.

This book is a great introduction to the philosophy of the human person, and also provides a starter course in the process of philosophical criticism. It covers Christianity, Plato, Konrad Lorenz, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, B. F. Skinner, and Jean-Paul Sartre. It is lucidly written. One could probably criticize it for making too many generalities, but its only real fault is its brevity; one would wish it to cover many more thinkers in the same fashion.