The essential attribute of human beings refers to the fundamental attribute that distinguishes human beings from animals. There are different views on human nature in the history of China's philosophy and education, which lead to different views on education. Mencius advocated good human nature; "Conscience" and "good skills" without learning are the beginning of all virtues, and the task of education is only to "appease" and restore human innate nature.
Xunzi advocated that human nature is evil, and the reason why people can change from good to evil is the result of accumulated study and acquired efforts. Gaozi advocates that there is no distinction between good and evil in human nature and emphasizes the natural attributes of human beings. Yang Xiong believes that there are good and evil in human nature, and the key to good and evil lies in learning. Dong Zhongshu, Han Yu etc. Advocating the theory of "three qualities of sex", it is believed that human good and evil are rooted in sex and expressed in emotion.
Understanding of human nature;
Although Kant and Hegel, German classical philosophers in the19th century, pointed out that human nature should be human sociality, their sociality is still based on the principle of transcendental rationality or absolute idea. Marxist theory of human nature holds that the essential attribute of human beings is not their natural attribute, but their social attribute.
Without a certain social relationship, there is no human nature. People make production tools and engage in productive labor in certain social relations. So generally speaking, the essential attribute of human beings, as Marx said, is the sum of all social relations.
In class society, class relations are dominant in all kinds of social relations, so human nature has class nature. Marxist theory of human nature laid the foundation of socialist education theory.