Definitions HQ

Human nature (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠"human" only insofar as it opens the possibility of becoming something highly unnatural — a man.

Human nature (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠something we could no more define than jump over our own shadows; if we have one, only a god could know it.

Human nature (n.) in ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠general does not exist; what exists is the essence of who someone is, and it comes into being only when life departs, leaving a story.

Human nature (n.) in ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠Hobbes is drawn backward from the state: he depicts man according to the needs of the Leviathan, a sketch of the new type who would fit bourgeois society.

Human nature (n.) ends ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠up as a god whenever philosophers try to define it — the god of the philosophers, who turns out to be a Platonic idea of man.

Human nature (n.) itself ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠— not society, not the outside world — is what totalitarian ideologies aim to transform; the camps are where the changes are tested, and so their shame concerns all men.