Poll: Are People Inherently Good?

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Twilight_guy

Sight, Sound, and Mind
Nov 24, 2008
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They're not inherently good or bad.
1. good and bad are socially defined, so inherent nature depends on what society is judging it.
2. People are programed socially over there lives. There experiences define them. If they get no programing, then they revert to instinct or join the nearest group or society of animals. Feral children become wild, but its hard to say if they are "good" or "bad" as opposed to just being.
Also, it's hard to say what "inherent" is. That depends on at what point you consider someone corrupted or no longer displaying inherent traits.
 

Social Pariah

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Nov 23, 2007
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People are inherently what most call, evil, the societal development of shame and guilt or concepts of decency allow some of us to fight against such urges and performing such behaviour. You start off bad/middling, are trained to be "good" (should circumstances permit) and stay within the boundaries of what society or parents deem acceptable behaviour.
 

Quel0

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Sep 12, 2008
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depends... is there an advantage to being either? I'd consider that people are usually good, due to the simple "do unto others" mentality that's prominent in all major social orders.
 

Dr. UBAR

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Dec 24, 2008
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In my experience people do become genuinely nice deep inside if you are their freind even if they are usually an asshole, but no amount of probing to a non-freind seems to say that these are good people. I am in high school which fucks that up a bit.


More thoughts: People ACT good on the inside but really aren't. They do everything for personal benefit. Even when someone thinks they are good they do what would be considered a "selfless deed" and it benifits them as well because they feel better about themselves.
/thought
 

Bachanomon92

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Jan 13, 2009
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People generally THINK that they are good. Most racists and murderers believe that what they do/believe is the right thing to do. Only a small minority are evil just for the sake of being evil.
 

Valiance

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Jan 14, 2009
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I voted yes out of sheer hope and denial,

But I lost faith in the human race a long time ago. And everywhere I see it, they're portrayed to be inherently evil no matter what they face.

I just hope that maybe something can happen to force all of humanity to unite, but...I doubt it's possible.
 

PersianLlama

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Aug 31, 2008
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Marv21 said:
Undead Dragon King said:
I personally follow a hybrid Hobbesian-Lockian philosophy about man and the "state of nature". If you place man on a basic level with no laws or moral teachings whatsoever, he will be self-serving only. That is why we have laws: so that the innate self-centeredness of man can be held in check.

Call me a nihilist, that's just my opinion.
Yes I love the ideas of Hoobes, and Locke, we need laws because men are not angels.

But humans vary differently some genetics make others agressive, and other nice. I perfer to blame evil people on the work of the parents, hope they rot in hell, which ends up the evil people themselves become parents. Its a vicous circle, I don't think we should blame the children, but in the end we kind have to.

Ms. Havisham effect.

Estella wasn't a bad person, she became one, and she got the shit beat out of her by her husband. Not her fault in the end.

Also I love your avatar.

Mai boi! I wonder whats for dinner!
Charles Dickens wasn't a bad person, but Great Expectations was a pretty boring book.

Sorry, I just wanted to say that.
 

Anarchemitis

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Dec 23, 2007
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I think humans are born moral, and with a conscience inherent somewhat to their parents. Which is a good set of morals initially.
 

blindey

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Dec 30, 2008
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Undead Dragon King said:
I personally follow a hybrid Hobbesian-Lockian philosophy about man and the "state of nature". If you place man on a basic level with no laws or moral teachings whatsoever, he will be self-serving only. That is why we have laws: so that the innate self-centeredness of man can be held in check.

Call me a nihilist, that's just my opinion.
Self-serving isn't necessarily bad. It's what drives capitalism and commerce.

As for the OP's question I agree that no one is *born* evil, and I think that that isn't the larger issue. The big question related to this I think is the concept of free will. I'll start off with a small story for background. When I was a small child I believed in 100% free will. So then I received more and more education throughout the years, and found that we don't have as much control over ourselves as we'd like to think. In summation, I don't believe we have as much free will as we'd like to imagination sometimes, and more than we do at other times. Thoughts, anyone?
 

Sneaky Paladin

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Jan 21, 2009
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damnit I have a moral dilemma now I'm friends with a saint who is smart likes art and helps people all the time and a complete asshole that I personnaly hate but I'm friends with him for no reason apparent to me except being friends since kindergarden