Peter Loptson, former Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Guelph and the editor of Readings
in Human Nature, also for Broadview, is now a Professor at the University of Saskatchewan. He has published extensively
in classics as well as in philosophy.
Summary
This book provides fourteen chapters of invaluable analysis and commentary on various approaches to the study
of human nature.
Theories of Human Nature explores the idea of human nature and the many understandings of it put forward by such
diverse figures as Aristotle, Rousseau, Marx, Freud, Darwin and E.O. Wilson. Each chapter looks at a different
theory and offers a concise explanation, and assesses its plausibility. Beyond that, however, Loptson does not
attempt to fit each theory into a mould. Some chapters deal with the ideas of only one thinker, some with a variety
of related positions (such as those liberalism and feminism). A clear distinction is made between theories of human
nature and the political theories which so often follow from them.
