ABSTRACT
Human nature' is praised, or blamed, for the good behavior of Samaritans and the bad behavior of politicians. The idea that Americans could quickly forget the irregularities of the presidential election contradicts whatever we might have observed about human nature, wrote Francine Prose. Few phrases are used so confidently and promiscuously, by parents and children, religious figures and laity, optimists and pessimists, humanists and scientists. And few phrases have been responsible for so much disinformation, or so much attitudinizing. John Keats thought it finer than scenery. It is a suggestive fact about human nature that it was once the intellectual property of poets, philosophers, and political theorists and is now largely the domain of scientists. 'Human nature' is an artifact of culture and language, of fantasy and projection. Many subsequent accounts of 'human nature' have followed Wilson's lead, filling the gap he lamented.
