Philosophy quote along the lines of "it is human nature to try to improve living conditions."?

Question

Does anyone know a quote on human nature by a well known philosopher along the lines of "it is human nature to try to improve living conditions."

Answer 1

Assuming you want to learn how to do philosophy:

Since "human nature" as a term refers to "The sum of qualities and traits shared by all humans,"

I don't believe you will find the quote you seek.

"To improve Living Conditions" is a goal not a characteristic. And it is not the goal common of all human beings for well known reasons.

Any use of the term leads to a fallacy! The "fallacy of misplaced concreteness"

"In the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, one commits the fallacy of misplaced concreteness when one mistakes an abstract belief, opinion or concept about the way things are for a physical or 'concrete' reality.

Whitehead proposed the fallacy in a discussion of the relation of spatial and temporal location of objects. Whitehead rejects the notion that a concrete physical object in the universe can be described simply in spatial or temporal extension. Rather, the object must be described as a field located in both space and time.

"...among the primary elements of nature as apprehended in our immediate experience, there is no element whatever which possesses this character of simple location. ... [Instead,] I hold that by a process of constructive abstraction we can arrive at abstractions which are the simply located bits of material, and at other abstractions which are the minds included in the scientific scheme. Accordingly, the real error is an example of what I have termed: The Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness." Whitehead (1997), p. 58.

"[The Fallacy] is merely the accidental error of mistaking the abstract for the concrete... This fallacy is the occasion of great confusion in philosophy." Whitehead (1997), p. 52. "

ref: excerpt from ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_...

I hope that helps you sort it out.

Answer 2

It sounds like a line from the movie AFRICAN QUEEN!

Katherine Hepburn's character says it. After Bogart, as Charlie Allnut, said, "A man takes a drop too much once in awhile, it's only human nature."

She replies, "Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above."

Answer 3

No but there are a lot of ones along the lines of "Its human nature to abuse your fellow man."