Human nature comprises the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or what it 'means' to be human. This usage has proven to be controversial in that there is dispute as to whether or not such an essence actually exists.
Portrait of Mencius, a Confucian philosopher
Statue of Shang Yang, a prominent Legalist scholar and statesman
Early modern edition of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica (1486), Francisceumsbibliothek, Zerbst (Anhalt), Germany
Nature has two inter-related meanings in philosophy and natural philosophy. On the one hand, it means the set of all things which are natural, or subject to the normal working of the laws of nature. On the other hand, it means the essential properties and causes of individual things.
Depiction of Aristotle
A Renaissance imagined representation of Democritus, the laughing philosopher, by Agostino Carracci
Francis Bacon
Thomas Hobbes