Monday, May 6, 2013
COM 250 / Wk. #6 Discussion: Human Nature: Fundamentally Evil or Fundamentally Good? And Its Influence on Civilizations
There are two extremely different views in regard to human nature. One is that human beings are fundamentally evil; the other is that human beings are fundamentally good. This two views has set the Western civilization and Eastern civilization apart in the past two thousand years. Due to this difference, Eastern society and Western society has different way to organize our life. Please offer your observation in regard to the difference. Is it possible that we use dialectical thinking to design a more reasonable society?
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The view that humans are fundamentally evil stem from a Christian perspective which heavily influences western culture. First off, let's understand what evil is by the metaphor; cold vs hot. When in a cold cabin and you start a fire, heat fills the cabin, because coldness is simply the absence of heat. In the same manor, evil is the absence of good. Now what is good? Where does good come from? how would you define good? Is good helping an old lady across the street, where do you draw the line at purely good? The best answer I can come up with is God. A being that created existence outside of time that gave humans the gift of choice, whether to accept goodness into their lives and thrive, or reject it. The problem I have with this whole question, is how do you define what fundamentally good is, and what evil is. Based on my analysis of it, the only logical solution I've come up with is that humans are fundamentally evil because we're born into an evil world of death and destruction from the sins of our fathers, and the only way we can "become" good is by accepting and just believing the only purely good thing there is in life. God.
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Steven Greene
So, you have problem with this question? Let me try to explain it.
ReplyDeleteThere are two perspective in the world in regard to human nature: one is that human being are born bad - they just cannot help to commit crime such as murder, cheating, stealing, and adultery, etc; the other is that human beings are born good - they have conscience. They cringe when they see a little child fall into a well.
Because of these two very different perspective. human civilizations go to two different directions. one is to believe rule of law because human beings are fundamentally evil. the other is to believe the rule of conscience because human beings are fundamentally good.
So purely good is the rule of the conscience. Purely evil is the total ignorance of conscience. These two beliefs systems are real, not something made-up.
In my personal opinion. I believe in purely good. I saw this purely good whenever I see a new baby is cuddled by their young mother. I saw the purely good whenever I saw people shed teas for others' suffering. I believe if we keep making our conscience awake, we can build a great civilization.
I don't believe purely evil. I saw people keep making mistakes and errors. They struggle to heal and redeem their soul. So. I don't believe prison, lawyers, and legal apparatus can solve the problem of the society. Society should work out a plan to trust people can make good decision. Call me naive if you want, but I saw too many people are locked up in prison here in the States and I see there is no end to the end of evil. I just see the vicious circle.
Purely good is real, it is in our heart. We see it in our loved one's eyes, in our parents' eyes, in our friends' eyes. When people do something wrong to me, I will not bring lawsuit against him/her, I will wait for him/her to come to his/her conscience.
Thank you for listening.
xiaowei chen
I'm honored and respect your reply, though I'm not confused at the question, I just defined what I believe to be evil and good. Someone's definition of good can be very skewed to that of societies, and I believe that as human nature and society we cannot truly fathom what pure "goodness" is, nor pure evil.
DeleteThese two systems are definitely real, we both agreed that evil is the absence of good (rule of conscience vs. disregard of conscience or lack of). But if you believe that, then where does good come from?
If you believe these two are real things, then how can you not believe in evil? Or the complete emptiness of good?
I believe if someone kills my family, or harms them or me at all, punishment is deserved, there should be no reason why that person should be able to walk the streets again if he commits a heavy crime toward me or my family.
I believe also that society does trust people and that they make good decisions. It's only when a man rapes a little girl, or when a mother microwaves her child that punishment is brought on from society because it is pure evil, or close to it.
Purely good is absolutely real, and to define what "good" is, I'll lead back to my first post, a being who loved us so much that he created us, and even when we fell into pure evil, he took all the bad acts of the earth onto himself, and died so every person can have the opportunity to experience what pure good truly is. To me that's pretty powerful.
Again, I respect your opinion and really am honored that you took time out of your day to reply to me. I hope to see you in class Monday and am always open to talk about this or any other topic. That's the beauty of America after all, we're free to discuss and grow in each opinions in an open setting. It's an amazing learning ability to not only learn about ourselves, but others opinions as well.
Thank you again,
Steven Greene
The concept of the world being fundamentally good or evil is mixed. Different cultures and experiences within those cultures shape the views of individuals and societies on this issue. The majority, however, is seemingly evil as that's what is seen in the news and social media. In opposition to this, however, is the idea that the news and media focus on what's wrong in the world. An example would be those who watch their local news. What they see is scripted and what is shown is largely what's wrong in the world. Everything that is beneficial to the world or fundamentally good events occurring in the world are under the radar in terms of publicity. This shapes the majority of people's view of the world.
ReplyDeleteAn example of fundamentally evil would be America. Our country was once perceived as the best country in the world; today it's far from that. Our view of democracy has gotten us into some trouble over the years as we are one of the first countries to help disputing countries around the world. Because of this we have gotten into wars and other troubling encounters to 'better' other countries. This can make America be seen as a evil country in a way as we don't allow others to live the way others want to.
Overall, the idea of fundamentally good or evil will stay a mixed agreement among people for quite some time. The only way to deviate from this is to form a consensus view of the world among the entire world population. With over seven billion people inhabiting the planet today, and living on almost every inch of the planet, we cannot form a good or evil experience with human nature. It will be one or the other.
In different societies there are different standards to what is good and what is evil. When fundamentally good behaviors are more accepted and lifted up to praise, humans conform to having acts of goodness. In societies where fundamentally evil behaviors are not frowned upon, humans do not see their actions as evil. Of course our two civilizations (Western vs. Eastern) are different because there are many levels of what types of behaviors are acceptable and which ones are not. In America, asking for money is an action one only does if it is their last option, but in Africa, people come up and ask for money everyday all-day. They see it as you giving them a job or providing for the community. Fundamentally mixed good and evil can be found anywhere but I do agree that societies and civilizations have different views on what can be seen as evil or what can be viewed as good. All of this behavior depends on where your grew up and how you grew up. A family of Blood gang members pass that tradition down, even though it is seen as bad, because it is accepted in their own part of society. There are different groupings that have their own rules and way of life and this is why fundamentally good behaviors or fundamentally evil behaviors are seen in a mixed presence, not just all in one place.
ReplyDeleteGood and evil have been around since the dawn of time. People have always associated the hero with "good" and the villain with "evil". I know when I joined the army, they were always putting into our heads that we would battle the country's enemy no mater if it were foreign or domestic. And then when 9/11 hit, I was on emergency leave and found out the "evil" ones were running around playing god. That's when we were sent to California to prepare to go to Kuwait in 2002. Once we finished that, we came home for two months, just to get orders to go back to Kuwait and sit around and wait to go into Iraq to take out the dictator, Saddam. As soon as we entered Iraq, missiles started flying overhead and hit Kuwait City, and some of the camps we were at. Picture G.I. Joe with soldiers getting off helicopters running into burning cities taking out the enemy one by one, and Apache helicopters hovering in place, shooting rockets at the city. It was one hell of a battle, but in the end, the "good" guys triumphed against the "evil" ones and rescued a country from one of the most evil men of all time. it felt good doing it too. Coming home, you could tell that things had changed though. Things just didn't seem the same. War changes people, even the good guys. All in all, good will always triumph over evil no matter where it comes from, I believe.
ReplyDelete