Idiosyncrasies of Human Nature...(bottom Line...We're All Human!)

Aristotle, with his ability to observe human nature once said, "All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chances, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, or desire." This was an observation written by a man who lived almost four hundred years before Christ was born. Apparently, our behavior as humans, with our idiosyncrasies has been going on since the beginning of mankind. In a nutshell, (so to speak) humans have been "nutty" forever. We can all justify our behaviors as rational with our own "creative deductive" logic for our wacky actions.

Let's do a breakdown of these seven causes with examples to see if Aristotle was on the money about human nature.

1) Chance-Yep, I'll agree with this one. It's self-explanatory. "Stuff" happens with no reasonable
explanation. No need to cite examples.

2) Nature-This goes hand in hand with chance. We just "are who we are" genetically speaking.

3) Compulsions-Many people have urges that require them to perform repetitive
acts.

For example:
* Napoleon was routine oriented and controlled by compulsions. He had two beds in his room. He would alternate, compulsively, from bed to bed during the night. And what was that weird hand in the coat thing all about?
*I also know a modern day woman who never stops reading a page of a book that ends in a three.
*On long family trips, my father used to find a mark on the windshield and weave it in and out of the yellow lines on the road. Just a little living-on-the-edge compulsion.

4)Habit- We are all creatures of habit that make sense to us. Here are some examples of habits from people I know. My grandmother used to take her shower and then apply her deodorant. It was her habit to lie in bed in her slip with her arms outstretched for thirty minutes to allow for a proper drying. We had some of our best chats during her "deodorant dry-out periods".
*One friend is in the habit of making sure her utensils are evenly distributed in her dishwasher. Each box must contain the same number of utensils. She, also, counts the number of times her turn signal clicks.

5)Reason-When my son was little, he had a quirk about not wanting to eat at other people's houses. He was visiting a friend once and the mom kept trying to serve him an assortment of foods. To solve his problem, he told her that all he ever ate was trout. He reasoned that the chances of her having trout on hand were remote.

6)Passion-I assume Aristotle was speaking of what we do for love. We can, also, become passionate about causes, hobbies or even -- Weight Watchers?! My mother's doctor discovered that she had a cyst the size of a grapefruit above her kidney. She did not ask if it was operable or serious. Knowing it could mean the difference of a few pounds she asked excitedly, "May I tell them at Weight Watchers!?".

7)Desire-This one can come in many forms. Everyone desires something on a continual basis whether it be clothes, food, people -- bakery birthday cakes with the icing made from lard. A friend once had a long lasting craving for these types of cakes. He went to different bakeries around town to disguise his need for a "lard fix". They always asked to whom he wanted the cakes signed. Towards the end of this craving, he stopped at one last time. He went blank on a name. Out of an intense desire for the cake he said, "No name. Just give me the darn cake."

Aristotle did have a vanity issue. Apparently he adorned himself with many rings on his fingers and made certain that his hair was always fashionably short for the time (www.gap-system.org). We can apply Aristotle's own theory on human nature, by saying that it is by chance that Aristotle's basic nature was, perhaps, a compulsive habit. He reasoned that if he looked good, he would be the desire and the object of someone's passion thereby, proving all of his theories at the same time. But did you know that Aristotle, also, suffered from poor digestion? Probably the effects and stress from his self-imposed vanity. So, what we know is that one of our greatest philosophers had his own set of idiosyncrasies? My conclusion, is that Aristotle was just as human as the rest of us. What a comfort....