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 pressuppositions 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
