Understanding the Dark Side of Human Nature

by Daniel Breyer (Narrator)

Hardly a day goes by that we don’t hear about someone committing a violent, reprehensible, even evil, act. And each time it happens, before we know anything about the circumstances, we are already sure of one thing: We are nothing like that perpetrator. But how can we be so sure? After all, we are all human.

In Understanding the Dark Side of Human Nature, Professor Daniel Breyer takes us on a fascinating philosophical journey into many of the deepest and darkest questions that have engaged humanity for millennia. The dark side of our nature is our mysterious and fragile underbelly - our negative, but all too human, side. For many of us, it may be easier to simply avoid looking into the darker aspects of ourselves and our world - the suffering we see everywhere around us, from real world events to the entertainment we consume. But the truth is, if we don’t face the totality of what it means to be human, we can never fully understand ourselves or fully appreciate our deep desire for meaning and purpose in our lives.

Thinkers from across the world and in many different eras have considered the dark side of human nature, and that’s why this course will adopt a cross-cultural approach, investigating perspectives from many different traditions - Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and secular. This cross-cultural approach will help you see humanity as fully as possible from many perspectives, better allowing for progress toward finding answers that can apply across cultures and times.

This course is fueled by the power of questions, one of philosophy’s most potent tools. Some are questions we have all asked ourselves: Why do so many people commit violence against others, why is there so much suffering in the world? Professor Breyer provides some fascinating potential answers to many of our darkest questions.


RUNNING TIME ➼ 12hrs. and 8mins.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Psychology, Audiobook, Science, Religion, History

13 pages, Audible Audio

First published July 19, 2019

Reviews

[Paula Berinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although a bit heavier on philosophy than I expected, this course proved to be thought-provoking and fascinating. Dr. Breyer does address the issue of evil throughout, as I anticipated he would, but he also considers anger, fear, failure of the will, and other human failings, making the course quite comprehensive. He is also easy to listen to, having a pleasant voice and delivering his talks in a fluid and clear manner. My one criticism is that most of the time he fails to consider that women don’t experience the world the way men do. For example, unlike most men, most women are *not* taken more seriously when they display anger. Nor would most women react to a dangerous situation by inviting a mugger to dinner after being robbed. Parables and examples are all well and good, but many of the ones he cites simply don’t work the same way for us as they do for him. He frequently talks about his son and his behavior, as well as his own, and while he does mention various women philosophers from time to time, he does stint on the female point of view. He seems like a nice and reasonable man. I hope he will think about this issue and potentially revise his lectures accordingly.

[Sarah Abd Elaziz · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this was very much entertaining and informative!!
Some of my favorite quotes

Calling someone evil is serious business, it marks out that someone is outside the moral community, by making someone evil we make the most serious moral accusation we have against them, but that accusation might end up justifying not only certain feelings we have against them but also certain responses

The philosopher Thomas Nagel considers the fact that our lives are mere blips on the cosmic screen, lasting only briefly. Nagel suggests that the factor that makes our lives absurd is “the collision between the seriousness with which we take our lives and the perpetual possibility of regarding everything about which we are serious as arbitrary, or open to doubt.” w We take ourselves seriously in the sense that we self-consciously pursue our lives. But when we step back from our lives and reflect on them and the reasons that drive us, things start to seem ungrounded, unjustified, and arbitrary. w To deal with or perhaps to avoid life’s absurdity, we try to find meaning in things that are bigger than we are. The problem with this, however, is that to eliminate absurdity, these bigger things must themselves be meaningful, their meaning must be clear to us, and the meaning they have must be meaningful to us. And so, when we step back from these bigger things and question them, the whole process starts over. w And this doubt cannot be laid to rest partly because once we step back from our lives, we consider them from a perspective “in which no standards can be discovered.” The step backward is not a step into the realm of the truly meaningful; it is a step into meaninglessness. w We only really need to do something if we think that life’s absurdity is a problem in need of a solution, and Nagel, unlike Camus, suggests that it’s not. Rather than being a problem, the absurdity of the human condition is one of its defining features.

The psychologist Daniel Wegner offers one way to test part of Freud’s theory. Wegner observes that when we want to stop thinking about something, we have a hard time suppressing the thought. w To explain this, Wegner noted that there are two cognitive processes working against each other: one process that tries to suppress the thought and another that monitors for the suppressed thought. The monitoring process ends up triggering the very thoughts we’re trying to suppress. w With this in mind, Wegner hypothesized that something similar might be happening while we’re sleeping. When we sleep, many of mechanisms that help us suppress thoughts, such as attention, control, and working memory, become deactivated, especially during rapid eye movement (or REM) sleep

The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre resists the idea that we have tailor-made natures that determine who we are. He argues that in every moment of our lives we are making ourselves through our choices. w Picking up on this, Robert Kane, one of the most influential contemporary philosophers of free will, argues that each of our genuinely free actions is “the initiation of a ‘value experiment’ whose justification lies in the future and is not fully explained by the past.” Kane posits that in making a choice, people say, “‘Let’s try this. It is not required by my past, but is consistent with my past and is one branching pathway my life could now meaningfully take.’”

An ignorant mind is precisely not a spotless, empty vessel, but one that’s filled with the clutter of irrelevant or misleading life experiences, theories, facts, intuitions, strategies, algorithms, heuristics, metaphors, and hunches that regrettably have the look and feel of useful and accurate knowledge.

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 5 out of 5]

For what it's worth, I'm glad I re-watched this Great Course series. This time my wife and I watched it together. It really needed to be viewed twice in order to better appreciate the complexity that's inherent within the subject matter. I tend not to let anger control my reason, and think Thomas Aquinas is right when he warns us against excessive anger, or Seneca says a similar thing as ably pointed out in this series. The lecturer gets all the nuances within the matter at hand and never decides for the viewer forcing the viewer to determine for themselves while presenting the best arguments. Truly a very complex set of lectures and will profit almost anyone. I noticed in my original review, my fear, anxiety and dislike for Donald Trump comes through, and even at that, if I could wish anything upon the soon to be indicted Trump (or as Trump said 'indicated' (on his unTruth Social site, 4/1/2023)) it would be to have him watch a lecture series like this one and realize why he is a danger to the world and thus have a change of heart. For me, it would always be anathema to wish harm upon anyone just as some of the Buddhist or other philosophers such as Jesus would say and who were highlighted in detail in this lecture series.

Original review written three years ago follows below:


Are all cats evil, or is it just that one cat that is evil, or do cats just do evil things? The very fact of asking the question frames the question as if it has an answer, and what applies to cats will most certainly apply to humans and their nature.

The cult of the ignorant, that is those who embrace Trump or believe that ‘climate change is a Chinese hoax’ or Covid-19 is a Democratic hoax or who believe drinking bleach in the presence of a light source is a marvelous preventative along with hydroxychloroquine are ignorant. Do they believe stupid things because they are stupid, or are they stupid because they believe stupid things? Socrates believed that all of our bad actions, bad thoughts, and bad speech comes about through our ignorance. Aristotle will say it’s our lack of good practices that lead to our bad actions, bad thoughts and bad speech. Are Trumpites ignorant because they lack knowledge or do they lack knowledge because they are unwilling to learn?

Have you ever seen an Evangelical Christian such as the spawn of Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell blame the victims of a catastrophe because of their ‘gay lifestyle’ as they did with Katrina and New Orleans, or as they do today with Covid-19? According to this lecturer they would be called ‘Deuteronomist’, a belief that a people or group are punished or rewarded for their collective guilt or behavior. The Spawns have never read Job or any of the other parts of the bible that requires thinking beyond their own biases, or at least they have missed the point of the stories. Job questioned God and that Deuteronomist perspective and marks a break from the old way of thinking and blaming to a new way of taking personal responsibility.

The Spawns have never read the New Testament either or at least never really got the message of tolerance or love that permeates it. The personal honor revenge of an eye for an eye until all are blind gets supplanted by a more responsible forgiving stance of a less revenge-oriented perspective involving a justice beyond mere revenge with a tincture of forgiveness thrown in. The Greeks will resolve the revenge system of the individual by supplanting it into the justice of the polis albeit by dismissing the testimony of a woman as not as valid as that of men in general. This Great Course looks at these kinds of things while connecting the topics to human nature of the dark side and the light side.

These lectures look at the paradox that exist within all of us, and while contraries are said to not exist, we humans do even with our contradictions since that’s what makes us human. This course looks at stoicism, ignorance, forgiveness, a little bit of Buddhism, the Bible, and other stray pieces as the lecturer builds a coherent story on human nature.

[Cav · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should say right up front that my lower rating for this course more reflects my general dislike of philosophy, rather than the presentation from the professor.

Course Professor Daniel Breyer is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Illinois State University, where he also serves as the director of the Religious Studies program. Dr. Breyer received a BA in Classics from the University of Montana, an MA in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College, and a PhD in Philosophy from Fordham University.

Daniel Breyer:


Professor Breyer has a good teaching style; despite my general dislike for philosophy. He presents these lectures in an enthusiastic and engaging manner.

Unfortunately, this course just did not resonate with me. It wasn't really what I expected... Understanding the Dark Side of Human Nature is a mostly philosophy-driven look into the topic, instead of a science-driven look into the matter. Breyer covers traditional Hindu, Greek, Asian and other philosophers here, as he examines the large existential questions facing the individual.

I was expecting more of a scientific approach to this topic. Something that covered the relevant biology, and/or neurology. Maybe even examining criminology, sociology, etc. That's not really what this course is. Reading other reviews here, I see that many others share this sentiment. Perhaps this was a failure of The Great Courses; they probably should have done a better job with the description of this course, so they set the student's expectations better.

While I did find some of the topics covered here by Breyer to be interesting, I ultimately ended up stopping this one early. I was not prepared to spend any more time on lectures that I was not really enjoying.

I am sorry to not give this course a better rating, as I'm sure there will be many people who will really enjoy the material covered here by Breyer. However, I think my rating needs to accurately reflect my level of enjoyment of the course, and not how I think it may be received by others.

So, if you are a fan of philosophy and are interested in this one, don't let my rating dissuade you. This course just wasn't for me...
2.5 stars.

[Kenneth Geary (KagedBooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title here is somewhat misleading, it's more of series comparative lectures of morale philosophy. It's fine and interesting but doesn't really scratch the surface of the dark side of human nature, more looks to talk about avoiding the dark side by what is right in a few different cultures.

[Diana Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have gone through several of The Great Courses and they have much to recommend them, extremely educational. In this course we look at human nature and how much we are effected by things that happen to us throughout our lives. It basically is a philosophical work looking at what it is to be human. The Professor covers a vast amount of subjects and it really makes one think of how we feel and process information and the choices we make. As with the other audio courses, a PDF is included and once is not enough for any of the recordings.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely interesting but definitely not what I was expecting. It is part of the Great Courses series and it is a certainly a course. It didn't dive into the serial killer mind or the mind of the overwrought mother who looses it. Those are brought into the discussion of various chapters but they are not dived into and picked apart. This "understanding" of the dark side of human nature is more philosophical and theorized.

[Lindsay Chumley]

I feel like almost everyone else who decided to delve into this particular subject did so with unrealistic expectations. "Evil" is a moral concept. WE MADE IT UP. We, as a society, have to try to *subjectively* determine what it is! At some point in the distant past, we decided that causing harm is *gasp* BAD! Based on the level of harm, we determined that when someone causes a lot of harm or irreparable harm, it's "evil."

There is no scientific explanation of or for evil! All explanations & discussions of the concept will be philosophical! Spoiler alert: this one is too!

Literally the only thing that bothered me was that at one point he referred to someone who perpetrated a crime as a psychopath when he was actually a sadist. I find that annoying as someone with a background in Psychology. However, I'm well aware that without studying Psychology, most people actually know very little about it & way less than they think they know based on stupid pop psych sound bites they've heard.

People seemed to want a scientific discussion of the topic, but the only way you're EVER going to get that is to read a text book on a topic, but no one wants to do that. SO MAKE UP YOUR MIND. Be entertained or bored to tears, but don't blame the book you chose to read for not being able to give you what you want when it's not designed to do so & give it a bad rating because of your lack of foresight, mmmkay?

Also, don't watch the Netflix show about what makes a psychopath. It's for entertainment purposes only. They are born, the end.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This course was so entirely on brand for me that I can't help but be disappointed. To be fair, I think I wanted something the author wasn't interested in teaching. I suppose I just have to give up on philosophy courses in general because I've been disappointed nearly anytime. For something as fascinating as the subject of the dark side of human nature, I really wanted something that delved into the actual science of this. Biology, neurology, criminology, etc. This was really theology mixed with some philosophy that kept everything at a pretty surface level and didn't feel like it offered much to anyone who already had a basic knowledge of world religions. Again, it's not necessarily the author's fault, I was just very disappointed to be so bored by a course on a subject that is so important and fascinating to me.

[Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fantastic first chapter or two. Then it kept getting more and more philosophical and theoretical. I finished it just to get it off my shelf.

[Ryan Alsaihaty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philosophical discussion about the human nature, in which topics such as evil, desires, death, grief, dreams, will, revenge, and anger are addressed. Due to the Author’s teaching interests, there is a lot of Indian philosophy and some Chinese philosophy in addition to the typical Western philosophy. The lectures started off well with several discussions about evil and the dark side of human nature, but then I found the later lectures to be less interesting and sometimes less relevant to the “dark side” of the human nature.

[Xan Rooyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great! I went into it thinking the focus would be more on the neuro-psychological angle of the discussion, but I was pleasantly surprised that this course took a cross-cultural philosophical approach to the subject instead.

If you don't have a background in philosophy, however, and are expecting/wanting a more psychological approach then this course might not be for you.

A really engaging and thought provoking lecture series!

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group of lectures using philosophy, religion, and psychology to explore the darker parts of the human experience.

If you like philosophy (I do) then you will enjoy these lectures, if not I would stay clear. There is a lot of what does what mean type discussion here.

Recommended for the philosophically minded.

[مُهنا · Rating 4 out of 5]

“People are like lettuce”

[Milan Lukac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent set of lectures on evil and suffering.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Breyer offers a mush of philosophy, psychology, & religion, covering, without properly distinguishing, moral evil toward others, unhelpful desires in self, death, etc.

[Michelle Lyons · Rating 2 out of 5]

I still don't understand the dark side of human nature. This was just semi-philosophical and religious ramblings.

[Tilila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first take at trying one of the "great courses". I really enjoyed the format: a series of 30minute lectures, snackable and written in a simplified manner. The narrator also made it easy and fun to listen to- He was a big reason I could follow through the heavy material.
I didn't have an expectation on the content, just a genuine curiosity on how the subject would be addressed.
I liked the fact that it addressed a broad range of aspects, which, if you had asked me before starting the lectures, I wouldn't have thought of as being part of the "dark side of human nature".
From defining "evil" and discussing "Moral monsters" end evil personhood (which, in hindside, are the two topics that I thought would be addressed), the lectures delve into weakness of will, grief, suffering and forgiveness & redemption. These latter, I was surprised to see addressed as I didn't think of them as being part of the dark side. But while listening, I understood that indeed they were and got to learn about the work of some of the philosophers who addressed them.
So, from that perspective the book succeeds in giving you a broad overview as to how philosophers across millenia have tackled the topic in various cultures (cross-cultural philosophy). You come out of the lectures with a framework on how to think about the dark side and analyze your own darkness (because, if you thought you had no dark side, by the end of the lecture, you'd have changed your mind).
The other positive point about this course is that Dr. Breyer always provides you with different points of view. Whenever a topic is introduced, you find yourself at first siding with one view, but then as the argumentation goes on, you get to understand other sides. In the end, at least as far as I'm concerned, I got a sense of the depth and complexity of the topic and that there's no right or wrong answer. In fact, the course indeed doesn't give you answers, rather leaves you with more questions.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed all the thought experiments and do recommend this course.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of the Great Courses series, this is an audiobook recording of a set of lectures given by Daniel Breyer, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Illinois State University, that investigates the philosophical underpinnings of why people do terrible things to each other. Crossing cultures, religions and psychology, it's interesting to examine the different, sometimes contradictory points of view, and easy to follow in Breyer's pleasant speaking voice and clear presentation. Unfortunately, I didn't read the course summary properly before listening and assumed from the title that it would take a more psychological approach, so although I enjoyed the philosophy itself, I was left feeling a little disappointed. In true philosophical style, there are a lot of questions and rather than provide any clear answers, Dr Breyer seems content to let the listener make up her or his own mind.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent course that nonetheless wasn't what I was looking for (I took this course for research) mostly because it's somewhat misleadingly marketed. Only the first part of the course is interested in "understanding the dark side of human nature," far more time is actually dedicated to learning to manage and live *alongside* darkness. Which is a great aim for a course! But again, not actually what I was looking for.

Still, this course is well-organized and gave me plenty to chew on. I might gripe around issues of thoroughness, slightly skewed worldview, and especially in some later lectures I found myself deeply disagreeing with some assertions (which is a good thing in academia! It means one is actively engaging and parsing the material for oneself). But on the whole, despite being a little off what I was looking for, this was not time wasted.

[Pinar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uzun bir aradan sonra okuduğum/dinlediğim iş geliştirme kitapları dışındaki ilk ciddi eser. Gerçekten ihtiyacım varmış. İnsanın karanlık tarafları, hataları, zayıflıkları üzerine yüzyıllardır aranan verilen moral ve felsefik cevaplarla Budizmden, Camus'a geniş bir yelpazeyi kapsıyor. Kitap 24 ayrı dersten oluşuyor. Budizm ve Hinduizmi veya yazarın bahsettiği konularla ilgili filosofları okmuşsanız ilgi/bilgi durumunuza göre yeni birşey bulamama ihtimaliniz mevcut. Aynı şekilde konuya tamamen yabancıysanız da sıkılma ihtimaliniz var. Benim bildiğim bir çok hikaye olmasına rağmen dinlerken çok keyif aldım, tavsiye ederim.

[Amber Tan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have not been reading/listening to too many books, I have watched hundreds of youtube videos regarding philosophy, gotta say I'm not so much enlightened by this series. Most of the content is basic. The series is just like an introduction of a lil bit of this and that, things that I've heard from youtube videos lmao... There's some analysis that surprises me tho. I'm here to read others reviews and I'm like, daaamm this site is amazing....! Brings out the nerdy part of me a bit... I'm going to read more.

[Hakan Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know what I expected when I picked this course to listen to. I supposed I expected something akin to Steven Pinker's Better Angels. I wouldn't say this was completely different that, but this is much more multicultural. I grew up Christian and American and this course showed me a different perspective of the parts of human nature we all abhor. I do admit that I found it harder to fallow these different perspectives I'm not familiar with. So I've come away from this book feeling there is so much more for me to learn--and that's a good thing.

[Malakai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detachment, as a defence mechanism. Or described stiffly by Christians as covetousness, idolatry and sin.
The way happiness was articulated with the oriental lens made a lot more sense. Why so many are hung up on expected outcomes beyond their control, emotionally invested in a slim chance. Then crashing out when the obverse eventuates.
Transience. Fidelity or lack thereof.
The dgaf about the outcome attitude. Accepting the way. Devoid of emotion. Flow state. The kind of gems you come across after binging martial arts breakdowns on YouTube by non-intellegencia.

[Hank Pharis · Rating 2 out of 5]

(NOTE: I'm stingy with stars. For me 2 stars means a good book or a B. 3 stars means a very good book or a B+. 4 stars means an outstanding book or an A {only about 5% of the books I read merit 4 stars}. 5 stars means an all time favorite or an A+ {Only one of 400 or 500 books rates this!).

Breyer is a good lecturer and lays out the issues well. But the most of the time he does not argue for a conclusion to the various issues he discusses. I found this frustrating.

[♏Vanessa♏ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great philosophical discussion .
Prof. Daniel dives into many different aspects of the darker side of human nature. Analysing them from not only cultural and religious believes but also many philosophical theories and view points.
The entire book is very interesting, and I often found myself stopping the book to discuss the topic with friends or my sister and comparing our discussions with the lectures.
Amazing listen/read, highly recommend.

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I thought it was going to be. This book blended a lot of psychology with religious beliefs and interpretations. It was extremely interesting at times but then extremely boring at other moments. If you're into looking at a complete history of human thought as to where evil comes from then this would be a good place to start. The subject matter was not too complex.

[Ravi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has very potent philosophical arguments about the dark nature of humans. The content greatly describes the reality of human nature in a way that you would have not considered before. It is not about pointing the bad or good, but it helps you look at the things the way they just are.
Great coverage of ancient philosophies.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a journey through philosophical theories about the very definition of evil, innate goodness, and the requirements for forgiveness, among so much more. The professor used some interesting examples, and pulls from virtually every major world religion to illustrate points. It’s a heady ride but super interesting!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is more a comparative look on the philosophy rather than a psychological insight on the dark side of human nature. Fascinating and I will most likely re-listen because there was so much to take in.