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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Beyond Good and Evil?

Is Man Inherently Good or Inherently Evil? Do we naturally go out of our way to help our fellow man, or help ourselves?

About a year ago, I was enrolled in a Philosophy class at the college I attend. The class was very interactive by nature, which is probably the best way to conduct a philosophy class. We'd start class with a bizarre breathing exercise and then dive into topics that would involve the entire class. Going toward the end of the semester we had a major debate that was easily the most intense discussion I've ever had in a classroom. The topic was one such that hasn't and probably will never be solved. And the question is this: Are people born good natured or evil in nature? Meaning, would Stalin have grown up to be just as evil in heart if he had grown up in a different time period, or place? Is that good will inside of us, put there from the start? or is it society that shapes and changes us into the people that we are?

The first argument goes a something like this:

We are born with good intentions and pure qualities but learn evil as we grow.
The first and easiest argument to this is that people are made in God's image, so that makes us automatically good. While this makes sense, I'm in no way, shape or form, religious, so I'll pass on this argument for now.
Carl Rogers believed that people are innately good natured, and if left to their own devices would bond together, work together and act together to achieve common goals. This way of thinking suggest that cultural things like money, prejudice, and bad up bringing, leads to evil in the hearts of men. If all that was stripped away, and people where born and raised in tribal villages with very little amenities, society was advance far quicker than more advanced societies where so many factors in human emotions can hold it back.
Some examples is that people leave money for bums and vagrants that they don't know. People always are eager to help with problems, tipping waitresses, helping an older lady who fell, carrying your neighbors trash inside, the list goes on and on to what human beings do that is good in heart. 


We are born with evil intentions and malicious qualities but learn to be virtuous as we grow

Sigmund Freud believed that people are innately evil, selfish and can only be counted if it benefited them somehow. If it wasn't for society and the rules that govern us, our world was literally collapse. Rape, murder, and violence would reign and humanity would kill itself. More to the fact, is that we are born with the most basic, core instinct of self preservation. And that instinct will allow us to take from others if it benefits are needs to survive. Therefore we are born with a selfishness that could be conceived as being 'evil'. Without the framework of our laws, and norms, we'd revert back to our primal instincts in which we only look out for ourselves. The examples of this are blatant, dictatorships, serial killers, rapists, theft etc...

Of course the third argument to all of this, is that being born 'good' or 'bad' is all relative. If every single person who was born was evil then it wouldn't be bad to be evil, and we wouldn't be having this discussion! Same goes for being good. The terms good and evil, are something that humans made, and a baby can't be born with either really.

Your thoughts and opinions on the matter? Are we inherently good or evil?

PS. A great loopy picture I found on Deviant Art! 

45 comments:

  1. i believe were born with both. but it all depends on how we are brought up to whether we are more good or evil.

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  2. we are evil! that's one biggest known thing

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  3. Its all about personal choices in the end.

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  4. Well, even evil people must believe they are doing something good or right. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. We are born to survive, and we do whatever we perceive to benefit our survival more. This may include doing good, like helping others and building a community, strength in numbers; or doing evil, often perceived as doing something that might be good for one or a small group of individuals.

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  5. My views always waver back and forth. I guess that's part of learning more.

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  6. Like alpha said above I beleive we are born neutral and the promentant years in childhood decide if we are "evil" or "good", but also our views on evil and good vary between the individual so it is a very hard question to answer.

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  7. Its not what you are born with, its what you have to have to be human is both.

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  8. Like a few others, I think it is neutral.

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  9. It's a rare occasion where I would actually agree with Freud. But in this case. I do. =/

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  10. I tend towards the "good" side. We are inherently social and cooperation leads to success (survival). Malicious behavior leads to conflict, pain and ultimately being ostracized-none of which are beneficial to self preservation.

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  11. We all have a good and we all have an evil. It just depends on what you surround yourself with which is what the subconscious of everyone wants

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  12. definately neutral, also i love that picture

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  13. depends how you define evil. cheating on tests? working your way to the top no matter what? stealing? killing? being happy when others suffer? that was normal behavior 2000 years ago, and now you call it evil. no such thing.

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  14. Seeing how cruel children are to each other and to animals, I think we are born evil and then learn how to be good.

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  15. Great blog man! Keep up the good work!

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  16. you are born with a clean slate and learn from parents and environment and natural instinct will make peopl do whatever they have to to get ahead.

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  17. Great! keep up the good work:)

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  18. its all a matter of perspective

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  19. I'd say we learn both as we grow, but some people learn one more than the other

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  20. I'd like to think people were born nice...

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  21. Some people even start out with just evil. Those that never can seem to get around with anybody. Even as liitle children.

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  22. I think it's different from person to person.

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  23. I never thought of it that way, and completely agree.

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  24. You are an excellent writer and make some very valid points. Definitley followed. I think humans were born with equal parts negative and positive. We choose which one we want to side with for the majority of our lives.

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  25. Your blog is dope by the way. Make sure you stop by Alee's Perspective sometime and say what's up!

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  26. That is one awesome drawing!!! :D

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  27. Never really believed the whole good/evil thing, everyone has aspects of both, no matter how small.

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  28. very philosophical, I love reading these kinds of posts

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  29. I think we're born neutral, or close to it, although some people seem to tend towards good from a very young age and others towards bad, so maybe some people are born "better" than others.

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  30. Philosophy is neat stuff, Ive actually been looking into it a lot recently.

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  31. I think we are born good/pure until we meet something that corrupts us - which turns us neutral - what we do beyond there is up to that person.

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  32. Great insight, never thought about goodness and evil like that before.

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  33. I find philosophy so interesting! I could spend all day thinking and discussing these abstract concepts.

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  34. Born inherently good. Conditioned into sustained goodness or inherent badness. I'm no bible-sort, neither :)

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  35. good discussion!
    http://turqoisemoon.blogspot.com/

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  36. I think this sets up a false dichotomy. People can be born sociopaths, or born predestined to develop a personality disorder that will lead them to do things that will later be viewed as evil. "Normal" people can do "evil" things when under the influence of drugs/sleep deprivation/mental illness/brain tumors/etc.

    In the case of Phineas Gage, he experienced a brain trauma that altered his personality making him mean and violent. The simplest thing to say would be that humans are products of nature via nurture. Environment influences genetic possibility. But then there are completely random events like brain damage a la Gage.

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  37. Excellent discussion. Eagerly awaiting the start of my own Philosophy class. I believe we are born as we are, the factors that surround us as we age help to shape us, good or evil imbued, these factors grow the shape of the driving force inside of you.

    +1 Follower,
    juju-paintballer.blogspot.com

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  38. I feel it's both depending on the situation it's just that some people are iherently more of one than the other.

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  39. Good and evil are subjective and relative. They are concepts that are developed through consensus by a society. People who violate the social code are considered to be evil. In this view, people are simply born. They can become good or evil depending on how effectively they are socialized to live harmoniously within a given society.

    I am not religious either but I find the Garden of Eden story an interesting mythological depiction of man becoming a sentient species. Our fall from grace (original sin) happened when we became sentient and could conceptualize a moral code. We could conceptualize the meaning of "good" and we could fail to live up to it.

    Animals rape, murder and do pretty much every other act that humans do to each other yet nobody would call an animal evil for doing so. It is just following its nature. Our ability to know what we should do is what creates the possibility for good and evil.

    Objectively, there is no such thing as good or evil (or hot or cold, light or dark, yin or yang, etc.).

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