Are humans inherently good or inherently evil?

[kidd25]

yes we are, baby are not raised to do wrong, but they still do it. Saying its the people fault then means that an outside force made mankind evil.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

well considering that most children are greedy selfish and tend to be assholes from the youngest ages, naturally, and that the society in which we live rewards people for being dicks to eachother and using people like tools as often as possible is how you get up in pretty much any company/social ladder, and how a certain level of arrogance and self serving doucheyness is pretty much required for giving off the "manly and thus desirable" vibe to women (if you're a man that is) and many MANY other things, yes I would say we are naturally a bit on the "evil" side, but then again it's our NATURE so wouldn't that be a neutral thing? We invented the terms good and evil anyway... and the concepts.

I believe those concepts were created in terms of control to make the weak be weaker and remain as a usable resource by being "good" I ain't sayin I'm a horrible person who uses people (much) but even just being nice, doesn't ensure that people let you have your own peace in your home, I hafta enforce the peace I enjoy and the kindness I can dish out by being a douchebag sometimes so I don't end up being used and bothered by everyone who wants some cash and thinks they can bum enough for a pack of smokes off me every goddamn day... if you're too generous or too nice people DO THAT.

So yes we are inherently evil as judged by someone who wished to control people... I say neutral...

Also, respect, it has a different meaning and a different value than most people understand, some people think to respect someone you gotta be really nice to them, giving people more than others and treating them softly and letting them walk all over you, is NOT respect, that is encouraging weakness and is harmful to that person's general state of being, encouraging a person to challenge themselves in a constructive and strengthening way is respect, treating someone like an equal is respect, responding in an accepting and friendly way to them by issuing light chalenges in a jockular and inoffensive way is respect, and not talking down to a man/woman about his/her family, or spreading gossip and malignant shit behind his/her back, that is respect...


"good" is weakness, embrace a little "evil" in your day to day affairs and watch as your life stops sucking as bad...

Peace(Through War)

 

[orangeban]

I'd say good. Most humans find something fundamentally repugnant about the idea of, say, murder. Harm to our fellow being isn't something we naturally relish.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I'm going to go with the blank slate theory. We are however the product of our upbringing, so if our parents are dicks than more then likely we'll also turn out to be dicks no matter how hard we try not to be.

 

[ImperialSunlight]

I think people are inherently self-interested (not evil) but don't display it because of moral conditioning experienced throughout life. And then that doesn't work on everyone, so those who don't submit to "goodness" are labelled as "evil".

 

[Jumpingbean3]

We are born without knowledge of social norms and from there our personal upbringing and experiences with others shapes our personality.

 

[HentMas]

Well, it socks to be you, but i think people are socks in the sense of socks... of the long striped kind, there are so many colors in socks that one can only wonder that there is no actual rule to make a sock

SOCKS!!!

 

[Jackhorse]

People are basically good.
Its just our bourgeois values, consumerism, subjection to the state, genetic predispositions, learnt behaviours and enviromental factors that stop us from being good.

Seriously though I think every man, woman and child has the latent capacity for evil but barring extenuating circumstances we all act very nice. I'm just going to go ahead and give humanity the benefit of the doubt. You all sound very agreeable.

 

[veloper]

Alright, so when people are born, are they good, evil, or are they a blank slate?

Neither. People are born with some qualities but they are neither good nor bad. It is society that labels this qualities as "good", "evil" and such.

Imagine simple experiment : does "good" and "evil" still applies when you're alone on completely uninhabited island ?

Possibly evil can exist, if you torture small animals on the island for no reason but your own enjoyment.

Modification : "Blue Lagoon" scenario. You were stranded at very young age. It's uniportant how you survived, you just did. You don't remember any people. You were never introduced into concepts of society, morality, ethics, good, evil etc. There's noone to judge your actions.

Does "good"/"evil" apply ?

That would basicly turn the kid into an animal. I'd say beneath good and evil.

Why ? Such human is capable of thinking, reasoning. He (or she) lacks in education, wisdom, experience but he understands much more than any animal will ever do. He may be very smart and intelligent, he may create and use simple tools, he may erect some simple house. He is "raw", "pure" not stupid. No concepts of sin, no morality but that doesn't exclude intact brain.

How about now ?

I don't think much can come out of a brain without input first. Language limits how far thoughts may go and this person won't know any words.
People learn almost everything by copying. Only very few people invent a new thing or two. He'll grow up very stupid as that big language unit grown on top of his monkey brain won't get any workout.

Naaaaaaaaaah. There's an input. Survivor isn't just bodyless brain floating in black void afterall. Also, experiment is about "good" and "evil" not "wisdom" vs "savagery".

But ok, let's complicate this experiment even more. "My house on Mars" aka "Bradbury's effect".

You're a kid left alone in high-tech base. Everyone else died/left/were taken away. There are plenty of automatons, machines that take care about your health, provide you with food, drinks, even basic entertainment in form of let's see... simple action video games (tetris, audiosurf light cycle, luminous and such).

There's nothing in whole base that can help you acquire higher education and before they died, adults taught you only basics - how to order food, interact without machinery and so on. You possess no knowledge of religion, philosophy, code of laws, morality, ethics, sin, reward.

Where's "good" and "evil" in this ?

The kid would be completely blameless, but also without any virtue.

From the kid's perspective there may be nothing bad to see here.
When I'm asked as an outside observer to comment on this hypothetical situation, I will be negative. There is a person without merit.
The evil is in the situation, while the kid is just without purpose.

 

[Whateveralot]

Nah. It's just that humanity has a few flaws which, when taken into account, and taking a flexible approach to every single individual, everyone is a good person when they can.

It's in our nature to be fair and helpful.

When we lived in caves and made fire by smacking random rocks together (not sure if that actually works, but they had the time and rocks to figure out), people survived by working together. This means to take together and share amongst each other. Of course, there's leaders that took more and shared less, but that's for a reason, and ultimately: survival.

Those who disagree just have a miserable life and care not look beyond their own flawed ideas.




This thread socks.

 

[retyopy]

Well, it socks to be you, but i think people are socks in the sense of socks... of the long striped kind, there are so many colors in socks that one can only wonder that there is no actual rule to make a sock

SOCKS!!!

Stripe 5! It's like hi five, but with stripes.

 

[UnknownGunslinger]

Good and Evil are a human construct. So neither?

This! Very much this!
Good and Evil are so much an artificial man-made construct it's laughable when they are through around hap-haphazardly.
An 18th Century American gentry could still be considered a good and upstanding citizen by his peers even while he employed slave labour! Today he would be villianized. Tomorrow, could be something else entirely.
The problem is we construct our perception of good and evil around ephemeral religious moralism and social philosophies which by definition make any moral truth employed by any society in existence as transient and insubstantial.
If you think that all humans born in your society are inherently Evil and need to be changed by society itself, well in the opposite site of the world some will view their people as born perfect and innocent and good, and in need of protection against the corrupting forces of the outside world - for instance if you're born in a religious sect like Quakerism, or a totalitarian government like North Korea!
The very question is wrong is what I mean.

 

[joeman098]

What makes an act good what makes an act evil. do you think suicide bombers see what they are doing as evil? no they think they are holly warriors. but to people outside that group they are evil morons that blow them selves up and kill innocents.

 

[KelsieKatt]

I would say that generally humans are born selfish assholes. However, people started to realize after a while that being on the receiving end of an asshole is quite unpleasant (probably a bit unsanitary too), and so morality was born and people were told to be nice to one another in order to protect themselves.

Or rather in a lot of cases, it's more along the lines of punishment than simply telling. The majority of people aren't inherently inclined to be nice up until they realize their ass in the line. Which is also why there's a larger influx of asshattery in recent years because the punishments are being deemed unacceptable so people are growing up realizing they can get away with a lot of shit. I'd hate to be a teacher these days considering the number of kids who find it entertaining to harass their teachers to the breaking point knowing full well a hand can't be laid on them.

And yes, I realize I have used the word ass a lot in my post. It feels fitting though for the subject.

 

[Loner Jo Jo]

I think people are neither inherently good or evil, just self-interested. The vast majority of actions taken by a person will be to further their interest. Even babies display this. They want to be fed or held or changed, and they quickly learn that by crying, they will get these needs met. So, they cry. It's not good or evil for them to do so; it's just their nature. If a person believes crime or "evil" will protect their interests, then they'll do that. The opposite is true to. You can manipulate this into getting people to do what you want by tricking them into thinking it's what they want or by explaining to them that this will help them too.

Now, I realize that this plays into the utilitarian argument, and it basically is. However, I'm a bit more cynical approach in that I think even charitable acts are done for self-interested reasons. The fireman runs into the burning building for glory and praise or because he couldn't live with the guilt of not having saved that life.

 

[razer17]

Neither. Humans, like any animal, are born to propogate our species. Good and bad are just things we made up in any case.

 

[Jodah]

Good and evil are subjective based on the society you live in. So neither...or both?

 

[dickywebster]

Considering that given the chance people will get away with as much as they can, id say more evil than good.
Besides, im a cynic who doesnt think well of anyone =P

 

[Raregolddragon]

I see our race as inherently good, evil and hate are things that are taught.

 

[Master_Fubar23]

both... some are born to be good while some are born to be evil but in varing degrees.