Ideology of Human Nature

 Gabriella Oliveri, Verrazzano Class of 2023, completing major in SLS (1-6) 

What is human nature? What are the understandings of individuals and their actions? Why are some people considered good and others bad? Do good and bad individuals exist and are they automatically labeled as such? Why are we judged based upon our entrance into the world? Is being different a good thing, or is this a means to a bad end? With all these questions I don’t think there will ever be a definitive answer, but a choice for one to decide what they believe human nature to be.

My questions upon human nature surfaced after learning about the theories of Mencius’, Xunzi, and Goazi. Each ideologist preached a different form of what human nature consisted of, and it gave me the opportunity to create my own opinion on this topic. Mencius’ and Xunzi had opposing views toward each other’s ideals.

Mencius’ idealized that all individuals were inherently good at birth, being born with the “4 Sprouts of Morality.” These sprouts contained the heart of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. Within these four sprouts, Mencius’ believed that all humans’ hearts were created to be compassionate towards others out of their own goodness, without needing a cause behind it. A person’s natural intuition is to want to help an individual because that is how a human’s heart is formed and shaped to be; a kind person who is good from the inside and out.

On the other hand, Xunzi did not feel the same way. He believed that a human’s nature was bad from birth because their instinctual acts would always be out of a desire to benefit and profit for themselves. To become a good individual in the eyes of Xunzi, one needed to put forth the effort in the ritual and standards of righteousness that is produced by their effort towards the ideal to become good. He theorized that an individual’s nature had to consist of their capability to learn through and achieve their goodness because they did not have it within.

Gaozis ideology argued that human nature was based upon circumstance which contributes to life experiences. He theorized that human nature was like a constant flow of swirling water and if it was to be disturbed then it would cause a disrupt to the natural flow. So, isn’t every person’s human nature differentiated because every person’s “flow of life” is to be different? Universally all humans share human nature, but their experiences are what make their differences.

Learning about all of these ideologies of human nature is a lot to understand, and forming your own opinion is a lot to process. However, that is the beauty of it.

Our cultural and moral experiences help to depict and guide the formation of our being. Xunzi believed that people needed the use of ritual and effort to become good since they were born bad at birth. Mencius’ viewed all humans as positive individuals and worked through life experiences as wanting to do good for others out of the goodness of their hearts. Goazi was a theorist who believed in the formation of individual human nature through experiences and circumstance. The entire idea of human nature can be interpreted, assumed, and pointed in various directions. My interpretation of what human nature is was formed upon understanding who these individuals were.

I think one of the purest things in life is the birth of a child because that is when time just stops, and your life and path are just beginning to form into who you will soon be. There is no judgement or knowing of past discrepancies; your slate is clear of all that is deemed as being good or bad. You are yourself in this moment without the actions of any force whether it be nature or humankind. You are not misrepresented. You are pure; you are you.

ACL Injuries and Female Athletes: What's the Connection?

Megan McEwan, Verrazzano Class of 2021, completed major in SLS and minor in Psychology

My capstone project was very interesting and personal to me. I was lucky to be hands on with my research, which consisted of girls tearing their ACLs during menstruation. This topic really spoke to me as a female athlete who had torn her ACL three times during menstruation, and people do not realize that there is a connection. I did not know there was a connection either until it started to become a repetitious pattern with multiple female athletes who I know that were in the same predicament.

A big reason why this topic also spoke to me is because the recovery of tearing my ACL multiple times was very tough and mentally hard. The research helped me to understand and make more sense of what exactly happened, and put me in touch with many people in the same circumstance. It allowed for me to not only share my story but to be able to share my knowledge to connect the injury that also occurred to them.

Since my freshman year as a Dolphin I had been involved in athletics and research, so completing the capstone was a big accomplishment of my prior years. I loved my time as a student athlete and Verrazzano member. I met a lot of great people along the way, and made connections that I will have forever.

I love to advocate for people to go to CSI and join the Verrazzano Honors program, as well as getting involved in the community as much as they could. I will forever cherish this experience and everything along the way. 

SLS 301: Learning About the Philosophy of Confucianism

Daniella Del Priore, Verrazzano Class of 2023, completing major in SLS (1-6)

 

In my SLS 301 course in the Fall 2021 semester, one topic we studied that resonated with me was the ancient Confucian tradition of filial piety. Filial piety is also known as Xiao. It has shaped equity, support, care, living arrangements, and family and social relations in China for generations. Filial piety is demonstrated, in part, through service to one’s parents and elders. Demonstrating it is the honor and respect that children show their parents, grandparents, and elderly relatives. This was of great importance to the followers of Confucianism in China. The Analects, an ancient Chinese book composed of a large collection of sayings and ideas attributed to Confucius (the founder of the philosophy of Confucianism), interpreted filial piety in many different ways. The idea in the classical text is discussed and brought up numerous times, further proving its importance to society.

The ancient Confucian idea of filial piety makes sense to me, and I can understand why it would be viewed  so importantly. In my own life I have a plethora of care, love, and respect for my parents and elders. There would be no hesitation to demonstrate the concept of filial piety towards them. Whenever my parents or elders need me I am always there, willing to help and care for them.

The relationship with my family is very close knit, and I am fortunate to have such a respectful, appreciative, and fond relationship with them. My parents and elders have done so much for me growing up and they raised me to be the person I am today. I am grateful to live the life that I live, and way I was raised is a big part of that. I have so much to thank my parents and elders for.

To demonstrate a deep respect to my parents and elders is vital to me, just like it was thousands of years ago in ancient China, specifically through the philosophy of Confucianism. Followers in ancient China cared so much about filial piety and emphasized the importance, which is why this idea resonates with me vis a vis my own personal familial upbringing.

Capstone + Covid + Fried Computer = Stress!

Ashley Roberts, Class year of 2022, completed major in English Linguistics and minor in Speech Language Pathology

At first the idea of the capstone project seemed incredibly intimidating. I didn’t know how to begin, what I wanted to do, or who to ask to be my mentor. Thankfully, I had Professor Hagedorn as my major advisor and she was involved in research related to the field of speech pathology, which is the field that I am pursuing a career in. Through speaking with her things naturally developed, and she agreed to be my mentor. She invited me to work with her on her research with patients who suffered from lingual cancer and had intelligibility difficulties. Things began much smoother than I had anticipated, then Covid happened and everything became a lot more complicated and difficult. I was no longer able to do any hands-on research collecting data as everything became virtual and remote. This was a bit disappointing, as I had been excited to be immersed in the research, but I understood how important and necessary it was to keep everyone safe. Ultimately, it didn’t prevent me from working on my capstone because there was already enough collected data from the patients for me to analyze. After some adjustments, taking short courses to become certified working with research data, and coordinating with Professor Hagedorn, everything was ready for me to begin researching and analyzing the data at the start of my senior year.

That was true until my brand-new laptop ran an update the night before the semester began that literally fried the laptop’s motherboard. This was during the semester that everything was being done virtually, where having access to a computer to do anything college related was vital. What ensued from one small update was what seemed like an unending stream of frustration and delays for all of my course work and capstone research. It took over 2 and a half months to get my computer fixed and functioning correctly. Thankfully I had an old laptop that allowed me by to do my class assignments and watch lectures; however, it wasn’t functional enough to run the advanced programs needed to analyze the data for my capstone. I was forced to put my capstone project on hold for about half of that semester.

Since I was also taking 23 credits, I had to focus on catching up on my backed-up class assignments before I could do any research. I managed to work out with my mentor that I would only focus my literary research and the literary review part of the research paper for the capstone proposal that semester. Things went slowly, because I was still struggling to catch up and I was still working on a computer that barely functioned. I ended up having to use that old laptop the entire semester because the new laptop kept deleting all the files that I was saving to it (which only delayed me further). Thankfully, Professor Hagedorn and Cheryl were more than understanding and patient with me as I did my best to meet the requirements.

In my final semester I finally had my new laptop functioning, and although I was still running into some technical difficulties I was able to successfully complete my research and data analysis. As one might imagine, it was both difficult and stressful to cram all of that into my final semester. However, with hard work and perseverance, and a lot of help and consideration from both Cheryl and my mentor, I was able to write the longest and most in-depth paper I have ever written (over 40 pages)!

Several times I wanted to give up. I cried a lot, and didn’t sleep much towards the end, but I can say without hesitation I am happy I did it. I learned so much from this experience, not only in my field of study but also about time and stress management, problem-solving, learning when to ask for help, and so much more. I learned I could do more than I ever knew I could! Even though it was an incredible challenge and I had to overcome setback after setback, it only strengthened my passion for speech pathology and allowed me to become even more prepared for graduate school.

 I am grateful for this opportunity and for everyone who helped me along the way, without them I could never have done it. I am fully equipped to tackle whatever comes next!