[In-person] Curiosity Café – Human Nature

Are we born who we are, or do we become who we are? Imagine two children: one raised in a harsh and violent society, the other in a compassionate and caring one. If they switched places, how different might they become? What might remain unchanged?

In our next Curiosity Café, we’ll explore the interplay between nature and nurture. From our emotions and personality traits to our capacities for care, reasoning, imagination, and curiosity, how much of who we are is inherited, and how much is shaped by experience? Together, we’ll consider how malleable human nature might be, whether we can act against it, and whether the ability to change always serves us well. We will then turn to what, if anything, makes humans special. Are language, morality, and meaning-making uniquely human, or do other animals possess versions of these capacities? Do we differ from them in *kind*, or simply in *degree*? And given the diversity of human lives, does it make sense to speak of one shared human nature?

Finally, we’ll ask what human nature might mean for how we live together. Are we inherently competitive and self-interested, or are we capable of being shaped toward cooperation and care? If we share fundamental needs and capacities, should we build our societies around them — and should we always strive to live in accordance with our nature?

Join co-moderators David Racioppa and Marybel Menzies for a thoughtful conversation about what shapes us, what we share, and what it means to be human.

Space is limited! Please obtain a “Pay-What-You-Can” ticket from Curiosity Café at [this link (click here)](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/curiosity-cafe-human-nature-tickets-2001808279451) to attend this event. You need a ticket to be admitted. See the above link for more info about tickets and other options including a limited number of free tickets. Come and hang out with us, grab food, and read through our handout from 6-6:30pm. Our structured discussion will run from 6:30-8:30pm with a 10 minute break in the middle.

Hope to see you there!

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This event is brought to you by [Being and Becoming](https://beingnbecoming.org/), a Toronto based non-profit. We aim to create community around exploring everyday concepts and experiences so that we may live more intentional, thoughtful, and meaningful lives. We use philosophy as a tool with which we can come to a richer understanding of the world around us.

By offering activities, spaces, and other opportunities for conversation and co-exploration, we hope to enable the meeting and fusion of individuals and their ideas. Everyone is welcome, regardless of background: indeed, we believe the journey is best undertaken alongside explorers from a variety of disciplines, cultures, backgrounds, and experiences.

Find out more about Being and Becoming [here](https://beingnbecoming.org/).

About the Curiosity Café Series:

For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to join us at our Curiosity Cafés and are wondering what they’re all about: every two weeks, we invite members of our community to come out to the Madison Avenue Pub to engage in a collaborative exploration of our chosen topic. Through these events, we aim to build our community of people who like to think deeply about life’s big questions, and provide each other with some philosophical tools to dig deeper into whatever it is we are most curious about.