The “negative” view of human nature: apologia for an unrealistic assumption

Abstract

The “negative” view of human nature is customarily seen as a distinctive assumption of the classical realist approach. Such a controversial characterization is regarded either as a metaphysical conception belonging to the pre-scientific age of realism or as a dangerous self-fulfilling prophecy. Although the dark image of human nature has elicited fierce critiques, we contend that it needs to be reconsidered. The present article forms a kind of apologia for the “negative” view of human nature: not because of any belief that humans are all truly dangerous individuals, but for a purely political reason. Some of the most important mechanisms introduced in order to defend liberty, independence, domestic and international pluralism, and prevent power from concentrating in one point and thus becoming dominant, are themselves based on a view of the individual as problematic and potentially dangerous, whose behavior needs restraining by institutional and political measures. As we show in the article, it is no accident that the anthropological conception of human beings as dangerous is not the “private property” of political realism, but is shared by some illustrious fathers of liberalism such as Locke, Montesquieu, and Kant. It may be one of the ironies of history that the political philosophy whose manifesto proclaims the defense of freedom and individual rights should rest on a vision of the individual as potentially a dangerous bully, sometimes driven by greed and lust for power.