Week 3: What is ‘human nature’: is it fossilised or evolving?

Here we explore our ‘nature’ as an individual, as a group and as a global community. Human wellbeing and world futures are predicated on understanding our nature. As individuals we can think of our nature as comprising body, mind and psyche (identity, self-consciousness). As members of a group (family, tribe, ethnic or religious affiliation, nation) we can think in similar ways. Individual and group natures are where most of the world resides now, it seems ‘natural’ for this to be so. But we may be, and arguably need to be, identifying ourselves as a member of the global community. This is a very recent evolution of thought and practice for humanity. It underpins the rise of sustainability movements, world order and governance and may ultimately decide the position of Homo sapiens in a brave new world.