Existential Human Nature? Is It Possible?

          Carl Rogers, famous psychologist and one of the founders of psychotherapy, interviews Paul Tillich, one of the most influential modern existential theologian, about human nature. Trend setters in their own areas, Rogers approaches the question of human nature from a scientific, psychological, and observational standpoint, while Tillich approaches the question from a philosophical, existential, and theological standpoint. Both believe that there is such a thing as human nature. The interview mostly is about Tillich’s thoughts on human nature with Rogers providing comments from his own expertise.

          Rogers thinks that humans are organisms and therefore directional, such as in a self-actualizing direction. We are also “incurably social” and have a need for relationships. He thinks humans have a “describable nature” and are not just objects. As Rogers put it, he and Tillich are searching for alternatives to the “logical passivistic, ultra-scientific approach, which results in a mechanistic, and highly deterministic” point of view on human nature of that time.

          Tillich thinks the best to prove human nature is “negatively” and uses famous existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre as an example. Sartre says that, “man is nothing else but what he makes of himself… man is free, man is freedom.” To say that man has the freedom to make himself, according to Tillich, is to give man the nature of freedom because no other species has the ability to do so.

For those who are intrigued by the dialogue between Carl Rogers and Paul Tillich, the full interview:

Carl Rogers and Paul Tillich p.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gHSKdX66tY

Carl Rogers and Paul Tillich p.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilRzf6SRfZI