Are Humans Good or Evil by Nature - 1521 Words

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. The primary evidence that people are generally evil is evident by the number of wars. Most countries have experienced their share of wars. World War One was the†¦show more content†¦In William Goldings novel Lord of the Flies which describes horrific exploits of a group of young boys who make a transition from civilized to barbaric. Golding believes that there is an evil seed inside all of us and given the right circumstances, human beings are capable of anything. The boys evil was described in his novel once they were left in an unsupervised society it became very chaotic. In a part of his novel, Golding describes the boys fear of a beast. With that fear, one night a boy that was away from the group came back and was killed. The boys thought that he was the beast coming from the bushes. Golding has given us an example that people do not have to learn to be evil but are born with the natural reaction to become evil once afraid or in a chaos. Another piece of literature that demonstrates peoples evil is Shakespeares Macbeth. The story is that witches told Macbeth that he would become king, with temptation to become king, the fear in becoming king, and the confusion caused by the witches evil became possible. With the help of his wife, he killed the people who stood in his was to become king. Literature has shown that it is possible for human beings in extremely confusing situations and with fear can be become evil. Philosophers and scientists have also tried to understand why human nature is evil, many believe that evil in human nature is uncontrollable.Show MoreRelatedHuman Nature : Good Or Evil1053 Words   |  5 PagesHuman Nature: Good or Evil All ideologies, including some economic ideologies, produce theories of human nature in order to establish fundamental human rights and to establish a more productive form of government. Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics of humans, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting; it is the moral principles that construct certain standards of behavior, which every person is entitled to simply because they are a human being. Many philosophers such asRead More Human Nature: Good Or Evil? 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