In addition to those aspects of ourselves which you might think of as our primary nature, that part of our nature that is more or less the result of our biological endowment. Then including such things as the basic emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprised. I want to talk a little bit about the things that might go more happily under the rubric of second nature. If you reflect for a moment and notion of second nature, you might think that is a part of yourself that has some role in shaping the activities that you engage in, the choices that you make. But that nevertheless is acquired rather than something that you're born with. For the phrase second nature probably, what does it come to? Well, it seems to me for example, the Asian tradition has had a lot to say about this going back some centuries. The philosopher Mencius who was one of the intellectual heirs of Confucius and responded to some confusion themes developed, built on some of what he heard from Confucius and his followers. His dates were 372-289 BC. He held that the locus of philosophical activity in self-cultivation is what he called the xin, that which he described as the chief organ of the circulatory system and the organ of thought what he also sometimes referred to as the heart-mind. He writes pointing out that we have natural tendencies towards sympathy. He writes, "Supposing people see a child fall into a well, they all have a heart-mind that is shocked and sympathetic. It is not for the sake of being on good terms with the child's parents, it's not for the sake of winning praise for neighbors and friends nor is it because they dislike the child's noisy cry." That someone would be concerned about the well-being of the child rather the heart-mind is one that naturally feel sympathy towards somebody else's suffering. I suggest that you've probably had a similar experience maybe in your country. There was a news story not long ago about a child that fell into a well or slipped into the cage at the zoo of a dangerous animal. That was in some of the way in peril and perhaps the entire country was busily refreshing it's screen, watching the news online hoping that there would be news of rescue soon for that vulnerable child. That's an example of not just Butler from the Western tradition and David Hume for the Western tradition, but also now we're hearing Mencius saying that something that we have a natural proclivity towards. We have a natural tendency towards carrying about the well-being of other individuals and maybe not just fellow who makes but many other living creatures as well. However, Mencius would also argue that this natural tendency towards concern for others well being is something that needs to be cultivated. It's something which if not cultivated could wither and die without it being something that we pay attention to and try to develop. More generally, he wrote about what's now referred to as the four sprouts. He writes, "A heart-mind that sympathizes is the sprout of co-humanity. A heart-mind that is aware of shame is the sprout of rightness. A heart-mind that differs to others is the sprout of ritual propriety. A heart-mind that approves and condemns this is the sprout of wisdom. If anyone having the four sprouts within himself, knows how to develop them to the full, it is like fire catching a light or a spring as it first bursts through. If able to develop them, he is able to protect the entire world. If unable, he's unable to serve even his parents." So, Mencius' idea is that these four sprouts which we can summarize as benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom, are ones that and we might have natural tendencies towards. They're ready to grow perhaps at birth or in early childhood but they require some input from us just as a gardener who's got some sprouts coming up in her garden needs to make sure they get water, relatively rich soil, and plenty of sunlight. So too, we find sprouts in ourselves but we can't expect just to let them grow without our input, without our cultivation. We need to do things that help them grow. That idea of cultivation is one that might raise the question well, how do I go about cultivating that? Well, in the case of wisdom for example, we talked about wisdom already when we discussed Socrates and claimed that when trying to unpack the idea that no one according to the Delphic Oracle was wiser than he. Remember that wisdom is not a matter of knowing a lot of information, it's not a matter of knowing a lot of facts rather, it's a matter of using the information that we do have in the way that's prudent, in the way that's practical, in the way that supports our or somebody else's well being. So too, that notion of wisdom is something that I think Mencius would probably welcome and say it requires practice, no one was born wise. It requires trying things and seeing what works, seeing what works for us and others, seeing which does not, pruning accordingly and developing our sense of wisdom in the process. So, it seems to me we could say the same thing about our attitudes towards others. The sprout of ritual propriety for example. Think of that as a pro-social behavior. When we do things like act politely, follow rituals of relatively defined, rigorous kind or just everyday rituals of saying thank you for example, we are in the process of developing one of those sprouts that helps us to be an other directed kind of person. The big picture here is that, that human nature in comprises to at least two different components. One of which is that part of our nature that perhaps as part of our biological heritage, something that is more or less genetically driven, in that we can't do a whole lot about whereas another part of human nature is going to be second nature that is developed only over time with effort with thousands of little choices that we make on a daily basis to do things like hold the door open for someone, to say thank you, to say you're welcome, to send a thank you note, to look at someone when you speak to them as opposed to looking away, to follow what's happening on their face as I described to you a situation that they just experienced, those pro-social behaviors might be effort-full at first but could hopefully become second nature over time. Then as they become more or less habituated, as long as we still put our hearts into them as it were and follow them with a certain amount of sincerity, then they're also looking to become things that are part of our second nature. So, second nature unlike what we can call first nature is cultivated. It includes these four sprouts that Mencius put his finger on and something that requires effort. It's not something that happens to us, it's something that we do. But what's difficult to see about that, the reason that's an elusive fact it seems to me, is that at any given time, we cannot do a whole lot about those things that are second nature to us. At any given time, I'm going to have difficulty changing my habits of interpersonal dealings for example. The way I talk to people, the way I listened to them, how I go about interacting with others on everyday basis is something that's more or less habit driven but still with effort and with time is malleable. So, the choices that we make now are things that gradually, it weighs it on a daily or even on a weekly basis don't make much obvious differences in ourselves, still make a difference in the long term especially when we're relatively young and still admit of a certain amount of plasticity. So, remember Pope wrote in his Essay on Man, "Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, a being darkly wise and rudely great" that middle state he's referring to is something that expresses the idea of ourselves being in large part up to us. We've got to decide who we're going to be. That self-determination as it were is something that's easy to miss because that middle state is something that you're in whether you like it or not and at any given time, there's not a whole lot about your second nature or for that matter, your first nature that you can change. But over time, these changes can happen and over time it's possible to shape yourself into the kind of person that you want to be, but it requires patience and determination and consistency. What we're going to see in the next book will be two aspects of the self that fall under the rubric of the unconscious. One aspect of the self is the traditional notion of the unconscious that was hypothesize where people like Sigmund Freud. Then, we'll be seeing more recent work on the unconscious that has been more powerfully validated by recent work in experimental psychology under the rubric of the adaptive unconscious. Those are both aspects of both first second nature particularly the second that is the adaptive unconscious is very much the stuff of second nature. I hope to see you again there when we go more deeply into that subject. Thank you.
