The human tendencies Drives, instincts, needs, tendencies To help us in our study of the human society, we will use the word “tendencies” to qualify the powers which urge the man to act.
It is not our purpose to develop a precise analysis of the psychical processes which is responsible of each action.
Even if we can call them drives, instincts, needs or tendencies (it is the case here), we shall limit ourselves to a single naming that we’ll separate into 2 categories. The field of tendencies is vast.
It begins with the organic instincts which govern our vital being (conservation, reproduction) and finds its achievement in the ideal and disinterested tendencies (generosity, mutual aid, altruism, spirituality, moral conscience…).
Between these two extremes, we can find the whole individual and social tendencies: sociability, maternal instinct, familial affection, imitation, nationalism, individualism, selfishness…
Positive and negative tendencies
For our analysis, we are separating the tendencies into 2 groups: in one side, the primary tight tendencies and in the other side, the superior and universal tendencies.
Primary tight tendencies
1/ In one hand, the selfishness and clan attitudes (predation, dominion, egocentrism, elitism, etc…). We shall call them primary tendencies. Superior and open tendencies
2/ In the other hand, the inclinations opening the individual to generosity and to universality (taste for mutual aid, altruism, solidarity, universalism, etc…). We shall call them superior tendencies.
From the animal instinct to the human drive
We can find these two kinds of tendencies in our natural primate cousins in a particular proportion.
The nature gives free expansion to the primary powers. They give rhythm to the social organization… The leaders have full power on the rest of the group, their egocentrism does not meet any obstacle, and they earn their privileges using violence. The man, on the contrary, favors the superior tendencies (at least conceptually). He venerates the altruism, the solidarity, and he only accept the primary tendencies by fatality. By discrediting the primary drives in favor of superior tendencies, the humanity has transformed a natural primate into a man.
Philosophy of drives index
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The humanity is destined to reach its perfection.
