Wow, fundamental human nature? Existing beyond time and space? How can you touch it?
******** Human nature doesn't exist beyond time. It rather unfolds over time. You touch it through history, in other words.
Example: There have been objections to slavery almost ever since it has existed. But are there similar objections to human ownership of animals? I know there are some pretty extreme animal rights adovcates out there, but would any of them argue for giving dogs and cats the right to vote?
Defenders of slavery (including Aristotle) always argued that slaves should be slaves because they are innately inferior (either as individuals or as a race). Opponents of slavery answered that the institution was wrong either because it was inhumane, and one should be humane to salves as one should be to animals, or, more radically, that slavery had nothing to do with innate human capacities, and people of all classes were fundamenally equal. Was any of these three positions right?
Assuming the correctness of the last position, which I do, it would seem to follow that slavery was an unnatural institution because it denied the humanity of a class of beings who were in fact human. This assured that there would be strong historical currents running against it. Slaves would revolt and more enlightened non-slaves would sympathize. The anti-slavery current prevailed over time. Do we, on the other hand, cower at the thought of a barnyard revolt, as the rulers of Sparta dreaded the helots (outside "Animal Farm" and "Chicken Run")? Questions of class society and exploitation inevitably involve our beliefs about the nature of the human animal.
Jim