ABSTRACT
All theories of human conduct contain at least a tacit theory of human nature, although perhaps the dominant view among sociologists tends toward the blank slate, the noble savage, and the ghost in the machine images made popular in the eighteenth century. Although unconstrained visionaries are the most hostile to the idea of an innate human nature because it militates against dreams of human and social perfections, they are often the same ones who urge to respect one another on the basis of our “common humanity.” Other unconstrained types may invoke John Locke’s tabula rasa to assert the “no human nature claim,” believing that an innate human nature view implies genetic determinism. The Darwinian theories of natural and sexual selection are the meta-theories underlying our current knowledge of what human nature is and how it got to be that way.
