Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher
Vol I: La volonté de savoir
An Introduction. NY: Pantheon. Translated from French by Robert Hurley. Page 43
History of Sexuality (1976–1984)
Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher
Vol I: La volonté de savoir
An Introduction. NY: Pantheon. Translated from French by Robert Hurley. Page 43
History of Sexuality (1976–1984)
“Human beings are a meaning-making species.”
Susan Cain book Bittersweet
Walker, Suzy (interviewer). "The Big Happiness Interview: Susan Cain on how embracing sadness can make us happier", Metro, June 5, 2022.
Bittersweet
“[A]ristocracy has a tendency to degenerate the human species.”
Thomas Paine book Rights of Man
Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)
“[Dr Breit] "It's irrational, but so's the human species."”
John Updike book Rabbit at Rest
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
“Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.”
William Godwin (1756–1836) English journalist, political philosopher and novelist
Vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 2
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)
“Nature is indifferent to the survival of the human species, including Americans.”
Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN
Radio address (29 September 1952)
Genesis P-Orridge (1950) British musician and writer
As quoted in Believer Magazine http://www.believermag.com/exclusives/?read=interview_p-orridge_rushkoff "Douglas Rushkoff in conversation with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge”.
Steve Stewart-Williams (1971)
Source: The Ape that Thought It Was a Peacock: Does Evolutionary Psychology Exaggerate Human Sex Differences? (2013), p. 144
“In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction.”
David Mitchell book Cloud Atlas
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, Monday, 13th January —, p. 528
Cloud Atlas (2004)
Context: Scholars discern motions in history & formulate these motions into rules that govern the rises & falls of civilizations. My belief runs contrary, however. To wit: history admits no rules; only outcomes.
What precipitates outcomes? Vicious acts & virtuous acts.
What precipitates acts? Belief.
Belief is both prize & battlefield, within the mind & in the mind’s mirror, the world. If we believe humanity is a ladder of tribes, a colosseum of confrontation, exploitation & bestiality, such a humanity is surely brought into being, & history’s Horroxes, Boer-haaves & Gooses shall prevail. You & I, the moneyed, the privileged, the fortunate, shall not fare so badly in this world, provided our luck holds. What of it if our consciences itch? Why undermine the dominance of our race, our gunships, our heritage & our legacy? Why fight the “natural” (oh, weaselly word!) order of things?
Why? Because of this: — one fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself. Yes, the Devil shall take the hindmost until the foremost is the hindmost. In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction.
Is this the doom written within our nature?
If we believe that humanity may transcend tooth & claw, if we believe divers races & creeds can share this world as peaceably as the orphans share their candlenut tree, if we believe leaders must be just, violence muzzled, power accountable & the riches of the Earth & its Oceans shared equitably, such a world will come to pass. I am not deceived. It is the hardest of worlds to make real. Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president’s pen or a vainglorious general’s sword.
“I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human species.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
Letter to Robert Lewis, 18 August 1799, published in John Clement Fitzpatrick, The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, volume 37, pp. 338-9
1790s
Context: To sell the overplus I cannot, because I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human species. To hire them out, is almost as bad, because they could not be disposed of in families to any advantage, and to disperse the families I have an aversion. What then is to be done? Something must or I shall be ruined; for all the money (in addition to what I raise by Crops, and rents) that have been received for Lands, sold within the last four years, to the amount of Fifty thousand dollars, has scarcely been able to keep me a float.