1. Hobbes depicts the state of nature as a state of war where individuals invariantly exercise the natural right to do anything to preserve their freedom and ensure their safety while Rousseau describes the state of nature as a condition of purity without vices and people exercise compassion. Hobbes provides that discord in society emerge because of the lack of institutions to commonly govern people and arbitrate conflicts while Rousseau states that conflict arises because of the development of society. To achieve a harmonious society, Hobbes suggests that establishment of a government to whom the people surrender some extents of their natural rights in favor of peace, order and security while Rousseau recommends retention of the his idea of the state of nature.
2. Rousseau explains that it was due to civilization and modernity that created society, which led to corruption. As populations increase, individuals experience the strain of scarce resource. Two societal processes emerge, which are innovation and social groups. Innovations result to leisure and luxuries that spurs the concept of false needs and greed and higher levels of intelligence resulting to vanity and pride. Social groups, originally intended for resource sharing, create comparison of individual resource access or control with some groups having more resources than others do. Differences in the benefits received from innovation and social groupings, emanating from genetic or environmental factors divides society into the rich and poor to create social unrest.
3. Smith perceives the division of labor in a positive light. When workers specialize, they become masters of their tasks leading to greater productivity and enhancement of skills. The underlying explanation for the positive view of Smith of division of labor or specialization is the recognition that human nature finds expression in the exercise of all people of self-interest. To achieve self-interest, people need to engage in specialization to achieve their needs through production. Marx views division of labor negatively because this results to alienation, exploitation and disparities in the social structure. Marx’s view of human nature as dependent upon the manner that individuals shape their nature does not match the impositions of division of labor within the context of inequity.
4. Marx describes alienation as the process that starts with the division of labor through specialization of tasks. High degrees of specialization lead to work repetition with one person doing a single task or set of tasks everyday. This then causes individuals to become alienated from their human nature because their work becomes mechanical and there are limited opportunities for innovation and creativity, which would provide the worker with a sense of purpose and enthusiasm for their work. Capitalism is contrary to Marx’s concept of human nature because the capitalist system strips individuals of the freedom to shape their nature and derive a sense of purpose by treating or making individuals as mere mechanical tools of production.
5. Smith explains that the capacity of individuals to exchange value differentiates man from animals. Exchange is necessary to fulfill their needs. What individuals do is to enhance the value of the capital and skills they have and contribute these to society. When all these contributions are integrated, society derives all the capital and skills that it needs to allow individuals to meet their needs. This perspective of cooperative exchange occurring within the context of capitalism explains Smith’s positive view of capitalism. Marx views people as different from animals because of their capacity to produce their environment even without the pressure of physical need and production is purposive as well as planned. Freedom and purpose are hampered by the alienating impact of capitalism.
6. Hobbes views selfishness as individuals implementing their own rules and judging other people’s actions based on these rules. Since men are equal, rules and judgments could cause conflicts that are difficult to address because of the lack of common rules or institution of authority. Selfishness as self-preservation regardless of the effect on other people causes conflict. Smith perceives selfishness as the application of self-interest. Since individuals do not have all the capital or skills they need to fulfill their self-interest, they contribute to groups. Returns are greater with contributions of greater value so that individuals seek to enhance the value of their contribution to obtain more value. Selfishness as the interest to receive more value creates cooperation within society.
7. Freud explains human nature as individuals constantly in battle over whether to yield to reason or appetite, with these two factors considered as opposing and irreconcilable. Humans have the natural propensity to fulfill their basic urges. Although, he carries a Darwinian conception of human nature, this implies that the enforcement of regulation over individuals as part of the mutual decision to yield to civilization to achieve order limits individual freedom to fulfill natural inclinations. Civilization places the interests of the rule of law, achievement of justice, and order above individual satisfaction. This then results to the dissatisfaction and misery. Freud’s perception of human nature gives rise to the astonishing contention that civilization ushers human misery.
8. Freud’s psychoanalytic therapy is in line with the tripartite mind structure made up of the id, ego and super-ego. The id refers to the instincts for the satisfaction of the appetite such as sexual drives that requires satisfaction, the super-ego pertains to the conscience developed from the internationalization of learning, and the ego refers to the conscious self, which emerges from the conflicts arising between the id and super-ego. Neuroses emerge when the id or super-ego overshadows one or the other because of social pressures or reactions to these pressures to think and behave in a particular manner. This results to a distorted ego. As treatment, psychoanalysis involves the balancing of the id, ego and super-ego by investigating the social pressures that resulted to the neuroses.
9. Freud developed the concept of the unconscious and a corresponding process of diagnosing and treating conditions related to this aspect of the mind. Unconscious is will as influenced by instinctive drives that operates below the conscious mind. As such, the unconscious comprises the repository of instinctive needs and desired actions. Even if these needs and desires are not contemplated by the conscious mind, these direct emotions and thoughts. Apart from storing needs and desires, the unconscious also holds all ideas and desires that are not socially acceptable, traumatic experiences, and other painful emotions repressed by the individual. Neurosis is diagnosed by identifying the symptoms of the psychological repressions stored by the unconscious.
10. On one hand, Marx advocates the abolition of private property as the means of addressing social conflicts. By eliminating private ownership, common needs and objectives dictates the allocation of resources to address common goals and allows individuals to determine human nature. One the other hand, Freud decries the abolition of private property because this will not address the problems in society but this can create individual problems when individual needs are suppressed by common interest. The difference in perspective of the two philosophers lies in their contextual view of human nature, with Marx perceiving human nature in the context of social groups while Freud conceptualizes human nature in the individual context.
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