Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature
E80228
"Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature" is a philosophical essay by David Hume examining whether human nature is fundamentally noble or base.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T641537 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature Context triple: [Essays, Moral and Political, hasPart, Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature]
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A.
On Human Nature
On Human Nature is a landmark 1978 book by biologist Edward O. Wilson that explores the biological and evolutionary foundations of human behavior and won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
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B.
Essays on the Active Powers of Man
Essays on the Active Powers of Man is a major philosophical work by Scottish Enlightenment thinker Thomas Reid that explores human will, moral agency, and the foundations of active powers in the mind.
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C.
The Conduct of Life
The Conduct of Life is a collection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson that explores practical and philosophical questions about how to live ethically and purposefully in the modern world.
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D.
Essays to Do Good
Essays to Do Good is a 1710 collection of moral and religious essays by Puritan minister Cotton Mather that urges Christians to engage in practical benevolence and social reform.
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E.
Their Morals and Ours
"Their Morals and Ours" is a 1938 political essay by Leon Trotsky that defends revolutionary socialist ethics against bourgeois morality and critiques Stalinism.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature Target entity description: "Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature" is a philosophical essay by David Hume examining whether human nature is fundamentally noble or base.
-
A.
On Human Nature
On Human Nature is a landmark 1978 book by biologist Edward O. Wilson that explores the biological and evolutionary foundations of human behavior and won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
-
B.
Essays on the Active Powers of Man
Essays on the Active Powers of Man is a major philosophical work by Scottish Enlightenment thinker Thomas Reid that explores human will, moral agency, and the foundations of active powers in the mind.
-
C.
The Conduct of Life
The Conduct of Life is a collection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson that explores practical and philosophical questions about how to live ethically and purposefully in the modern world.
-
D.
Essays to Do Good
Essays to Do Good is a 1710 collection of moral and religious essays by Puritan minister Cotton Mather that urges Christians to engage in practical benevolence and social reform.
-
E.
Their Morals and Ours
"Their Morals and Ours" is a 1938 political essay by Leon Trotsky that defends revolutionary socialist ethics against bourgeois morality and critiques Stalinism.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (39)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
philosophical essay
ⓘ
work of philosophy ⓘ |
| addressesViewpoint |
that humans are naturally dignified and noble
ⓘ
that humans are naturally mean and base ⓘ |
| aimsTo | reconcile opposing evaluations of human nature ⓘ |
| author | David Hume ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Great Britain ⓘ |
| discusses |
limits of human reason
ⓘ
mixed character of human motives ⓘ strength of human passions ⓘ |
| examinesQuestion | whether human nature is fundamentally noble or base ⓘ |
| genre |
essay
ⓘ
moral philosophy ⓘ |
| hasInfluenceOn |
later debates on human nature
ⓘ
moral sentimentalist traditions ⓘ |
| hasPerspective | moderate view of human nature ⓘ |
| historicalContext | Enlightenment philosophy ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
dignity of human beings
ⓘ
human nature ⓘ meanness or baseness of human beings ⓘ moral psychology ⓘ |
| philosophicalIssue |
evaluation of human character
ⓘ
optimism versus pessimism about human beings ⓘ |
| philosophicalPosition |
skeptical about extreme claims of human depravity
ⓘ
skeptical about extreme claims of human nobility ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition |
Scottish Enlightenment
ⓘ
empiricism ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
moral sentiment
ⓘ
passions ⓘ reason ⓘ self‑interest ⓘ vice ⓘ virtue ⓘ |
| relatedWorkByAuthor |
A Treatise of Human Nature
ⓘ
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals ⓘ |
| usesMethod |
empirical observation of human behavior
ⓘ
philosophical analysis ⓘ |
| workIn | moral philosophy of David Hume ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature Description of subject: "Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature" is a philosophical essay by David Hume examining whether human nature is fundamentally noble or base.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.