What makes a person good or evil? Why are some people labeled as good and some evil? Why do some people have traits or characteristics of both good and evil? Are people truly evil or do they just make bad choices? Throughout our lives we are faced with making decisions about our lives and often the choices we make can determine the path we follow. Depending on our life choices we can be labeled as either good or evil. Good and evil are relative; one person can be good while another evil. Some people can possess a combination of both good and bad traits. But even those who are considered bad can be rehabilitated to display good qualities such as empathy or kindness. According to neuroeconomist Paul Zak, 95 percent of people studied release oxytocin when they received a positive social signal. Oxytocin is released when we watch an emotional movie, are touched by someone, or trusted with someone else’s possessions. About 5 percent of the people studied did not have a release of oxytocin after stimuli, resulting in the conclusion that these people possess psychopathic traits (Zak). People who are evil genetically lack receptors for oxytocin and tend to display the psychopathic traits. They do what they want will little or no regard for the safety or wellbeing of others. They tend to be loners and many have suffered from some form of abuse during childhood (Zak). Stress can cause good people to have moments when we act badly. This occurs because stress inhibits
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.
“Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by an inability to form human attachment, aggressive narcissism, and antisocial behavior defined by a constellation of affective, interpersonal and behavioral characteristics, most of which society views as pejorative” [1]. Some of these characteristics include irresponsibility, grandiosity, cunning, deceitfulness, selective impulsivity, sexual promiscuity, lack of empathy, etc. People who are psychopathic display not only antisocial behavior but also emotional impairment such as the lack of guilt. They are able to prey on others using their charm, deceit, violence or any other methods that allow them to get what they want. A strong feature of most of the behavior
Naturally, there is good and evil in every person. However, it is often difficult to see the
“That line between good and evil is permeable,” a psychologist from Stanford University by the name of Zimbardo once said. “Any of us can move across it… I argue that we all have the capacity for love and evil — to be Mother Theresa, to be Hitler or Saddam Hussein” (qtd. In Dittmann). Social psychologist Zimbardo implies that we can easily swap from side to side. What factors elicit darkness? What draws out the darkness, making us jump from good to bad? There are many views in the society that attempt to tackle this question. For instance, social psychology and philosophy. Social psychology tends to side with situation and or authority. On the other hand, philosopher John Locke is certain that the accumulation of experiences is the cause. What is the ultimate answer?
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
No one is born good or evil; it is one's environment and the people they encounter in life which makes them good or evil. A lot of time it is not the individual's fault of the way they are, they might have seen so many bad doings that, they are use to it and might think that it is right. One is not born with a vision of knowing what is wrong and what is right in life, but learns when something happens to
Evil can be categorized into two forms, moral evil and natural evil. Moral evil is brought about by bad choices that stem from our free will. Natural evil is bad things that happen to people, whether they deserve them or not. The problem with evil is,
Evil people are found throughout the entire world. Young or old, small or large, evil people exist all around the world. Rather hurting other people or animals, these acts are inhumane and abnormal. Any act of violence is wrong, but actually harming or killing other people or animals is over the line. Evil has been studied for thousands of years, and the root question is always, is evil born or made? Children can be completely normal and be a great child, and as they reach middle adulthood they could fall off the deep end.
How does one characterize good and evil? Throughout time, people have asked this question and only received opinions based on references from
There are many theories why people could do evil things. Is it because they were abused or had a rough childhood? What if the society isn’t to blame at all for their behavior? (Olivia Goldhill “Are Some Humans born evil?”) People say people are born evil or people who are born good turn evil. This topic has been studied for many years and many people have different opinions about it. A person may say they don’t believe that people are born evil. Another person may think that people are born evil or good people turn evil. An example is babies aren’t born evil. Their minds are wonderful. Their minds are innocent and they don’t know much. A person can’t possibly be born evil. It really depends sometimes how a person is raised or what that person experiences in life.
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
I do not believe that people are naturally good or naturally bad, you can choose whether or not you are good or bad. There are many people in this world that have chosen to be bad, they try to corrupt the minds of the world with their horrible influence on others. Although there are people in this world who have chosen to be bad there are also many people that have chosen to be good. A good person tries their best to be kind and caring to others, spreading their joy and compassion towards the people around them. In my opinion, it helps to always try and have a good influence on other people because your actions will affect how people think of you and how they will probably act later on.
Being good or doing good things leads to many things, but in order to give a clearer definition, one must understand what it is that these good actions created. Once one understands this, then the individual can clearly see the logic behind what some would consider an evil action. Over time, humankind has strived to become what they believed to be holy pure or good. This attempt at being what is virtuous has given birth to a set code of conduct or thoughts that are now commonly seen as the right thing. This code of conduct was based upon morals, which are any given individuals thoughts and believes on what is acceptable as good and evil. Due to the fact that mankind also strives to be accepted by there peers, a common set of morals was established and agreed upon by any specific generation of people to be the good thing. Understanding and knowing these the morals of these given times in history will be necessary to understanding how to define evil.
A person is not born evil. In an article by Romig about why people are evil, he states that “Evil requires agency; one can’t be born with it. Terry Eagleton writes in “On Evil,” his rather flippant 2010 consideration of the dark side, “If some people really are born evil … they are no more responsible for this condition than being born with cystic fibrosis.”(Romig, Rollo). Evil is not a genetic disease. It does not get passed down through the DNA. When a child is born their brain is not developed enough to differentiate between good and bad. Therefore no one is born evil.
Human beings are taken to be complicated creatures so much so that people do not trust one another for simple reasons, but the question has always been who defines what is bad? Who is a bad human being? What is that qualifies one to be bad? Are people born bad or the word makes them bad?