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Corrected Proofs of The Nature and Destiny of Man
The Nature and Destiny
of Man
A Christian Interpretation
I
HUMAN NATURE
by
Reinhold Niebuhr
Gifford Lectures
New York
Charles Scribner's Sons
1941
PROOF COPY (first paragraph): Man has always been a problem to himself. The problem of
himself is man's most vexing perplexity because every
seeming certainty about himself involves contradictions;
and every affirmation which man makes about his stature, nature or
virtue seems to imply a denial of what is affirmed, if the pressupposi-
tions of the affirmation are fully analysed.
REVISED COPY (first paragraph): Man has always been his most vexing problem. How shall he
think of himself? Every affirmation which he may make about his
stature, virtue, or place in the cosmos becomes involved in contradition
when fully analysed. The analysis reveals some presupposition or
implication which seems to deny what the proposition intended to
affirm.
Reinhold Niebuhr Papers: Library of Congress, Manuscript Reading Room
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