Classical realism on human nature and Freud

pp. 23-54

in: Robert Schuett, Political realism, Freud, and human nature in international relations, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

Abstract

Morgenthau's realist international-political theory is based upon a distinctive conception of human nature. Morgenthauian Man is possessed by an animus dominandi, a will to power that inclines him to dominate fellow Men. It is neither a perfectible saint nor a Kantian animal rationabile. Consequently, Morgenthau warns us of reposing too much faith in Man's moral capacities. With such skepticism toward Man in the social, political, and international-political sphere, Morgenthau placed himself firmly in the realist tradition, which has, despite all its diversity and different degrees of pessimism/optimism, always been genuinely wary of the natural Man. In this regard, Morgenthau can be compared with Kennan, Lippmann, Carr, and Niebuhr. They, too, never bought the Rousseauian assumption of the presocietal noble savage. To hit the nail on its head, such "treatment of human nature, reaching back to Thucydides, informs every facet of realist analysis."¹