Human nature is the ever-changing complex of social relations, not a fixed essence

Evidence

The basic innovation introduced by the philosophy of praxis into the science of politics and of history is the demonstration that there is no abstract “human nature”, fixed and immutable (a concept which certainly derives from religious and transcendentalist thought), but that human nature is the totality of historically determined social relations, hence an historical fact which can, within certain limits, be ascertained with the methods of philology and criticism. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 617 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Human nature is the totality of historically determined social relations, not a fixed essence. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 617; Human essence is the ensemble of social relations, not an individual abstraction; Nature’s qualities are historical, not fixed, under human mastery — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 825 (+1 more)

Related

• Human nature is the totality of historically determined social relations, not a fixed essence. (similarity 0.94)
• Objects are studied as social relations, not physical things (similarity 0.90)
• Lukacs’s dialectic is historically monist, not dualist between nature and humanity (similarity 0.84)
• Humans are constituted by their social relations rather than an intrinsic essence (similarity 0.84)
• The rights declarations replaced historical rights with rights deduced from human nature. (similarity 0.83)
• Human essence is the ensemble of social relations, not an individual abstraction (similarity 0.82)
• Objectivity is historical and exists only in relation to man. (similarity 0.82)
• Nature’s qualities are historical, not fixed, under human mastery (similarity 0.81)
• Defining man as an ensemble of social relations blocks comparison across eras (similarity 0.80)
• No culture’s content is derivable from universal human nature or nature itself. (similarity 0.80)
• Human society is a historical reality that appropriates nature rather than submitting to it (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Human nature is the totality of historically determined social relations, not a fixed essence. #corroborates (0.98) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 617
• Human essence is the ensemble of social relations, not an individual abstraction #corroborates (0.95)