Instinctively good, or Instinctively evil?

ButteredToast.

ButteredToast.

Active member
Mankind.

Is mankind instinctively good, or instinctively evil?

Are we born evil, and society trains us to be good and virtuous?

Or

Are we born good, and society trains us to be evil?

Which one do you suppose mankind is at heart?

I thought of this today while mowing the yard and listening to the degenerate lyrics biggie spits, and then the good things that tupac raps about.

Thoughts?

 
if you ever take a Philosophy class you will at least talk about this.

personally, i think humans are born evil, and based on culture, where you are raised, and the moral values of said culture you can become good. watch babies all in a playpen together sometime, they dont share or shit and are basically out to get what THEY want and dont give a shit about anyone else.
 
Let's piss off NS again...I've been quiet for a while, but here goes.

There is no such thing as relative or subjective when it comes to evil and good.

What is good for one man might be evil for another, yes. But if there are no absolutes when it comes to evil and good, then there can never be a functional society.

Absolutes must be put into place in order for community to function, and for man to propagate.

If man's biological purpose is to reproduce, then we must be able to stand each other long enough to shag, give birth, and raise a child. If we all have different definitions of good and evil, then we must also have different definitions of sexy and non-sexy. Most of the time, we do not.

We agree that it is wrong to steal another's belongings, and in fact, we have a psychological disorder to label those who actually differ from this agreement. Antisocial disorder, look it up.

We agree that murder is wrong, that hate crimes are wrong, that war must have justifications.

However, based solely upon the merit that such things exist, and by observation of children without proper discipline, I personally believe that man is inherently evil.

Now, that does not mean we follow through with it. All (or at least like 98%) people have had at least one moment of anger or such similar emotion. What we do about it varies.

There is always a pacifistic or low-key solution to everything, but of course, some people choose not to utilize that, and thus screw it up for everyone else. Beginning a train of events that leads to hatred and evil.

Sparknotes:

Why is there evil? Because it can be defined. How was it defined? Because we all know what it means. How do we know that? Because we've all had moments like it at least once.
 
I believe that people are born neither good or evil. Just..a clean slate. Where they begin in the very begining of their lives is when I believe a person becomes "good," or 'bad." This is usually where the nature vs nuture debate begins...
 
im sorry, i just have to do this cause your name is pink

(mel gibson from Lethal Weapon voice) "well if it isnt Sigmund Fraud".... (/voice)

i swear i talkeda bout this in both a philosophy class and my honors science thinkers class this quarter.
 
we are inherently good and society makes us evil. would you ever say any animal is evil? at a basic level we are just a super developed animal. if society didnt take the place of our animalistic instincts we probablly wouldnt think anything of good or evil. thus society leads to evil
as for the babies in a playpen argument, look at a litter of dogs(or any type of big cat) when its time to feed the biggest one pushes the smaller ones out of the way to eat first. thats not evil thats just natural. so babys not sharing shit isnt in fact im sure they dont think anything of it
 
Well, based solely upon the merit that good things do exist in the world, and by observation of unsupervised and unchallenged people who choose to do good, I personally believe that man is good.
 
yeah, that was a bad argument on my part....

but human beings are competitive animals (yes, i said animals) and inherently what we do to better ourself may appear to be evil another person's perspective.
 
Is there more good or bad in the world?

And can't we be seen as selfish individuals, that perhaps do good things only for the feeling it gives us?
 
Exactly. Because if each man is for himself, then we must all compete for the best.

If we do so, even just to survive. We will most likely be considered evil by someone else who was subjugated by us, even if only unintentionally.
 
Precisely. I simply choose to see good more than evil. For instance, humans are (at least subconsciously) selfish. If we were not selfish, we would go around doing things that are not necessarily beneficial to anyone. But doing things that are beneficial help ensure human survival, and I believe that the human will to survive is good.
 
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its not evil of a baby to try to get what it wants, people are animals and animals most basic instinct is survival and survival isnt evil..
 
So you're one the nurture side of the debate then.

Different societies hold different definitions for "good" and "evil," and as mentioned before, unless both are unanimously defined, "good" and "evil" will be subject to cultural norms.
 
we created good and evil, there is no such thing.

everything is in your own perspective, what i think is evil, someone else can think is good.

there is no answer.
 
If given the chance, i bet most people would choose to be good and happy instead of evil and happy. Because a range of social, economic and environmental circumstances that exist around the world though, some people default into evil way to 'make it' (which i believe is the weak mans way, a cop out per say).

My basis for this perspective is the prisoners dilemma scenario...people don't trust one another enough to work together so they resort to 'evil' mannerisms to put themselves ahead...which is a joke.

Greed is the root evil.
 
Meh, moral absolutism has way more problems than relativism...
To answer the thread creator's question: humans are neither inherently good nor evil. Morality, ethics, all that is the product of society - at the basic level humans are amoral. Animals kill other animals, they take what they want to survive, they do anything to protect their young (as long as they're not the kind that eats their young) even killing, and all of this is considered immoral by an absolutist standard.
I, personally, am a proponent of Aristetolian virtue ethics where the morality of an action is based more or less on the morality of the motives behind the actions/on how virtuous the perpetrator is. If a just man acts in a certain way, it is in a just way, as long as he follows Aristotle's rules to achieve eudamonia, so yeah....
 
I would agree that the potential for evil is inside all of us, just as the potential for good is inside all of us; but as rational beings we have some control in how we present ourselves to society. I only say 'some' control because the environmental factors that surround us as we grow up (parents, friends, neighbourhoods, etc) have a large influence in what aspects of our identities flourish or are squandered.

 
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