Single Idea 23032

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / e. Human nature]

Full Idea

All that is distinctively human in the life of man springs not from the desire to possess this or that object, and so far to realise a better, but to be something more and better than he is.

Gist of Idea

What is distinctive of human life is the desire for self-improvement

Source

report of T.H. Green (works [1875]) by John H. Muirhead - The Service of the State II

Book Reference

Muirhead,John H.: 'The Service of the State: T.H. Green' [John Murray 2021], p.27


A Reaction

An example of Victorian optimism, I think. I'm guessing that people who are not motivated by this impulse are not behaving in a way that is 'distinctively human'. That said, this is an interesting aspect of human nature.

Related Idea

Idea 22033 Hegel tried to avoid Kant's dualism of neutral intuitions and imposed concepts [Hegel, by Pinkard]