by Derek Allison

Created on: January 10, 2007   Last Updated: November 29, 2011

According to the Biblical concept of "original sin", God created mankind as perfect human beings with the prospect of everlasting life in paradise. However, as a result of rebellion and disobedience at the dawn of Creation, mankind inherited sin and death.

 It is this Christian concept of mankind being inherently depraved and sinful which Enlightenment philosophers of the 18th Century sought to challenge by attempting to produce an entirely empirical and scientific account of human nature. For many philosophers of the age, human nature is capable of improvement towards perfection given the right political, social and educational environment.

As civilisation develops and progresses, human nature can become more true to its potential. At the same time, this theory must apply to all human races and must be able to account for racial differences which can be identified. It is clear that to regard any differences from the general model outlined above as indicative of non-humanity is a racist theory, and it is much more acceptable to regard racial differences as not inherent but produced by circumstances such as climate, geography, education and social and political systems.

In 1737, the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) completed his 'A Treatise of Human Nature' with the ambitious aim of remedying the defects of all previous philosophies by establishing the foundations of a genuinely empirical science of human nature . In his 1742 essay 'Of National Characters,' Hume argues that "negroes" and "all other species of men" are naturally inferior to white people .

He argues that there has never been any degree of civilisation, no "ingenious manufactures", "arts" or "sciences", to be found outside white nations . By contrast, even the most "rude and barbarous of the whites" still demonstrate some degree of civilisation . He argues that this "uniform and constant difference" between races of men can only be explained if nature made "an original distinction" between them .

Thus, Hume asserts that there are distinct racial differences in human nature. All other races are inferior to whites, but not because of cultural differences; on the contrary, cultural differences can be explained by this "original distinction" between races.

In answering the question "What is Enlightenment?" Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) defined the philosophy of the age, and support for Hume's verdict can be found in his 1764 essay 'Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful

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