Hamann's anthropological thinking examines the tensions between freedom and dependence. Man, though always shaped by a specific environment, is endowed with a capacity for self-determination. Correspondingly, Hamann has a normative answer to the question of man's nature and develops his own natural law theory: since man naturally loves himself and others, he does not need a superior authority to live in society. His duties are made known to him through 'nature' in the sense of creation and a normative instance. Important to Hamann is the idea of revelation, in 'nature' and scripture, because he does not believe in a purely intellectual apprehension of values.