Are Humans Good or Evil by Nature?

A famous philosopher Socrates once said, 'the unexamined life is not worth living.' With that idea, the question 'Are Human Beings Intrinsically Evil?' has been asked by philosophers for many years. It is known as one of the unanswerable questions. Determinists have come to the conclusion that we are governed by the laws of science, that there is nothing we can do about ourselves being evil because we naturally are. Evil is simply the act of causing pain. In this essay I will argue that human beings are born with a natural reaction to 'fear and chaos' to be instinctively evil.

Genetics are the main factor when it comes to humans being inherently “evil”. They play a big part in our life, see as how our genes determine everything about us before we are even born. Before humans are they are selfish and have evil tendencies, they want everything to themselves and will do anything to achieve it. Genes have been proven to be a

All throughout our history, we have come to label events, object and people as either good or evil/bad. We tend to believe that the world itself is driven by good forces and evil ones. Since this is a term we often take for granted, it should not be debatable, and all of us should have the same concept about it. Sadly enough that is not true. Societies and culture shape our understanding of evil.

Throughout time humans have been trying to explain the nature of evil and man’s relationship with evil. Many have come up with an explanation that seems logic but yet some still disagree. In this case the authors of Macbeth, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Picture of Dorian Gray, Paradise lost, and Beowulf all share the same concept that anyone has the capacity to do evil, but they disagree with each other on the idea that evil is not a choice.

It is a very arguable subject on whether or not people are born with good intentions, and therefore taught by others the ‘evil’ side of their personality. Whether it is the absence of ethical conduct in human nature, or just the way one perceives a situation, evil seems to be prominent in our everyday lives. Humans seem to have a moral code that follows them with every decision they make, yet despite the laws of morality and society, people of this world still seem to behave inhumanely because of the act of self-preservation, human interest, and who exactly the authority figure is at the time.

Many people have their own views on humanity. They can either be that humans are essentially good but can become corrupt or that people are just essentially evil. They have their own opinions, some people can tell their perspective on humans in other fashions. If people are essentially good, they how do they become corrupt? Or if are truly evil, then why do some people seem like they are kind people and they can never do such things? To take both of these into account, a person may saw that people are good but deep down have evil within them. People may ask how does the evil within a person come out, the answer to that is that it is thanks to their environment. The environment around a person can undoubtedly draw out the evil within them

What is evil? Is it characterized by a desire to cause hurt or harm, “an evil mood”? What causes people to do evil? The strong feelings of hatred and dislike that builds up in all of us or simply that all our emotions are constantly on the dark side for such a long period of time. What is right from wrong when the hate in our hearts makes us all make terrible mistakes and commit evil. The writings of Confucius say, “There is no light without darkness, no positive without negative, no good without evil.” Throughout the history of humanity, humans have committed inconceivable and unthinkable acts of cruelty towards one another. From the brutal wars during the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans, to the modern

The only reason humans are not consistently acting according to their evil roots are because civilization and society changes the way they behave so that humans can work together to survive rather than depending on survival of the fittest. All humans are trained not to hurt others and to protect each other. This is

All humans are or have the capacity to be evil. No matter if they choose to act on these sinister urges or not, the desire to violently cause destruction is always within a person. In recent months, countless acts of violence, acts of pure evil have occurred not only in America, but around the world as well. These tragedies verify the truth: humans are inherently evil. No matter what is done, nothing will ever truly prevent the existence of evil among humans. Human beings are savages by nature, and are motivated by the environment around them, society’s demanding expectations, and their natural primitive desire for evil.

Describing someone with the word “evil” refers to them committing an action that is considered immoral and malicious. Evil people pull off these type acts: robbing a bank, violent killings of living creatures, and even mental abuse through verbal or physical actions. Many people always wonder, what was the initial purpose of committing such inhumane actions? They may say hatred, anger, and revenge are some of the causes of evil. Although these traits do cause the idea of evil in an individual, the inspiration for iniquitous intents is — in fact — sprouted through the unideal human traits of apathy and ego.

Human nature I believe is evil. This might sound a bit harsh in some ways, but subsequently, Humans are definitely prone to do bad things. This feeling was also experienced by some philosophers that we have studied this year,

Therefore evil cannot live in the hearts of people." (Bates, C. 1986.) Applying this quote to whether humans are inherently good or evil, it is proven that it is impossible that a person is naturally evil. The evil actions that a person would perform would be a result of ignorance of their environment or of values of their

Humans can be evil - history has shown this time and time again. This is obvious in The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, when the Right Hand Brother, who was considered to represent ‘good’, being described as, “always truthful, reasonable, good-hearted, and straight-arrow”, murdered his own brother. Despite

Since the discovery of philosophy by the Greek civilizations man has always tried to find the cause of many fundamental problems that are connected to the reality and existence of factors that contribute to these dilemmas but still remain unknown to humanity. One of the most controversial questions philosophy tries to answer is the origin of what we consider evil, who or what is connected to the main cause of the pain and suffering that goes on throughout the world. “Evil is when one purposefully causes pain, not pain caused by fault, knowing something is morally wrong, but still proceeds in doing so. Simply by the definition of evil,

The novel, Lord of the Flies, gives light to the idea that humans are in fact inherently evil. The boys implement a very unorganized society that turns them into savages with a mob like mentality. They become so selfish and immersed in themselves that they actually begin to murder and become evil in nature. As humans evolve, they learn to become good, yet the evil in them comes out all the time and is seen in many situations.