The Chinese Concept Of Yin And The Dark Knight Essay

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.

Inside each of us, there is a seed of good and evil since it is a constant struggle for us to

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.

Religion also claims to provide a solution for whether human nature is initially good or evil but this of course varies upon the religion. According to Catholicism everyone who has been born is tainted with original sin which according to the bible is an inclination to evil caused

“Human nature is evil and goodness is caused by intentional activity” - Xunzi. Humans by nature have natural tendencies to evil however not everyone acts on those emotions.

People are always getting into situations that have two possible ways to go. That person can choose the right thing to do or the worse. There have been numerous amounts of people asking the question “what is good and evil?” Many have tried conducting experiments to try and find the roots of what makes people good/evil? Evil acts and evil itself can be shown through the social, economic, and mental environment.

All human beings, from birth to death, have an evil part of them used to survive hidden deep inside their mind. This is evident in babies who can seem innocent but really have a selfish attitude towards others since their only goal in life is to have their needs met. Evidence of this being true can be found in William Golding’s The Lord of The Flies and the film adaptation of The Hunger Games. Mankind is inherently evil but civilization changes us, we always go back to our evil side, and without a good government or set of rules we all become savages.

It is dangerously naive to believe that some people are innately ‘good’ while others are innately ‘evil’ or ‘bad’. In today’s society, ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are relative - one person’s ‘good’ is another’s ‘evil’. These qualities are also flexible. For example, people who chose to behave in a cruel manor can display ‘good’ qualities such as kindness or empathy. Moreover, a supposedly ‘good’ individual can act out due to anger or annoyance.

From the beginning, humanity has exhibited opposing principles. This can be seen in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, where characters differentiate themselves between two sides, good versus evil, by their morals. A person with morals will not be overruled by evil but push themselves and others to strive for righteousness. On the contrary, a person without morals can be persuaded into committing evil deeds. Therefore, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird displays that there are a lot of opportunities for humans to behave in an evil manner; however, those with strong morals will resist.

Good and evil are determined by society and one’s value of what is right and wrong. Everything good or bad that comes in our life is because of who we

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

From the beginning of time, the fight of good and evil has continued to exist and rampage through all that lies in its path. Is it the nature of mankind to behave in such a manor? While evil might be prominent in its realm of terror, it does not come without its opposite— optimism. Without optimism, evil would not be known. A person must know the bad times to recognize the good times. For the sake of mankind and its ability to survive and thrive, optimism and evil must coexist; yet, this relationship has cracks produced by interpretation and opposing views.

The conception of evil is an inevitable topic that has been argued for centuries and will be for more to come. But what is immorality? Friedriche Nietzche believed that turpitude is solely dependent on one’s own personal perception and is stimulated by one’s desires. In British Literature we are commonly introduced to characters that have developed from foulness as an outcome of obtaining what they want. According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “man is naturally good” (Notes); Humans have no darkness within themselves in their natural state, but are corrupted by depravity in the world (Notes). Evil is obviously prevalent throughout society, as a result human beings derive malevolent traits throughout their life based on their experiences and circumstance. Hobbes advocated the pessimistic viewpoint on human nature and attributed moral vileness with humans’ primitive instincts. The characters of Macbeth, Grendel, and the Dragon support the different theories of Nietzche, Rousseau, and Hobbes by describing the nature of turpitude and the motives behind its foundation.

What is considered evil depends upon each individual’s view of morality, which constantly changes through the course of that person’s life. Roy Perrett’s “Evil and Human Nature” explains this by elaborating on the customary interpretation of moral evil. This evil, caused by an intentional bad action or harm, opposes another type of evil, natural evil, which occurs without

The problem of evil is as ancient as humanity itself. Since the dawn of man, thinkers, philosophers, religionists and practically every human being who have suffered at the hands of evil have pondered this enigma, either as a logical-intellectual-philosophical or emotional-religious-existential problem. The preponderance of evil as a reality in human existence, and