Human Nature and the Human Condition
Throughout history human beings have attempted to produce theories of knowledge and learning. Some of the most basic questions such theories have attempted to answer are: What is knowledge? Where does knowledge come from? And how do we know what is true is true? Plato theorized that only things that do not change, that are immutable, can be known. Limitations of the human senses and perception have always played into theories on knowing. So, too, has human capacity for ration and more often than not conceptions of ôGod.ö Augustine and Descartes used the premise of Cogito ergo sum, ôI think; therefore, I am.ö Modern philosophers like Bertrand Russell theorized that all knowledge that exists is empirical, a posteriori, and derived from experience. Others argue in favor of the existence of a priori knowledge.
In order to live our lives, we must often ask ourselves a number of different questions like: What is knowledge? What is the source of Knowledge? How do we know knowledge when we find it? What are the limitations of knowledge? And how do we apply this knowledge to our lives in a meaningful manner? It is these kinds of questions and their answers that former Columbia University professor Joseph Wood Krutch (1959) focused on in his collection of essays entitled Human Nature and the Human Condition. Though first published in 1959, KrutchÆs exploration of human nature and the human condition is highly relevant and applicable to contemporary times. This review will summarize the contents of the book, explicate its major themes, and discuss the authorÆs strengths and weaknesses in the work as a whole.
In Human Nature and the Human Condition, Joseph Wood Krutch (1959) provides a collection of eleven essays, some of them formerly published in American Scholar and Saturday Review and others delivered as lectures at Stanford University the year before the bookÆs publicat...