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How We Think about Human Nature: The Naturalizing Error

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Douglas Allchin  and
Alexander J. Werth
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Abstract

History is littered with scientifically ill-founded claims about human nature. They frequently appear in normative contexts, projecting ideology or values onto nature (what we call the naturalizing error). In considering a remedy, we adopt a naturalized epistemology approach to how we think about human nature. The “nature” in “human nature” fosters unproductive essentialist thinking, epitomized in the adage “a tiger cannot change its stripes.” Universalist, fixist, and teleological perspectives each erode epistemic reasoning and blur the distinction between normative and descriptive justification. We articulate strategies to guide more responsible claims about human nature in science and science communication.

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Articles
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Philosophy of Science , Volume 87 , Issue 3 , July 2020 , pp. 499 - 517
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Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

We wish to thank H. Clark Barrett, Paul Griffiths, Tim Lewens, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

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