TO ALL MY ETHICAL PEEPS...
MY BAD! Once again...I forgot to post this sooner. Anyways, you do know what I want you to respond to so I'll make this brief. You simply have to "try" to explain why you think that even if ALL of us know the right ingredients and factors necessary in living a harmonious and peaceful tranquil life, it still seems so difficult for us to do so. Yet when it comes to going against all those factors, we do it easily without a blink of an eye. How come?! Does this therefore really mean that "humans are born naturally evil"???
Respond to this clearly and completely. See you all Monday...stay safe and be ethical...CIAO!!!
Mr. A
2 comments:
I don't think that humans are born naturally evil. If it were so, we wouldn't be able to think about what is moral or we would neglect the morality. It is difficult for us to behave morally even when we know what is moral because in certain cases, we have base on our instincts and impulses. For example, someone may display malificence because they are ticked off. However, not everyone are pushed to that kind of situation to behave immorally. We still behave morally even when we think about it because some people's moral development may be edged in different directions. Although most of us share very similar beliefs, we may have different views on how to apply the ideas. Someone who does not benefit much with a certain idea such as generosity or has a bad image of being generous may feel that it is of less importance and neglect to do it. Once it is neglected often, it becomes insignificant to the person and even when they think that it is important to a good life, they totally block it out.
I agree with Anuk that human beings are not naturally born evil. I, like most other people, believe that human beings have transcended other animals not because of our territorially dominant nature, but because of our moral reasoning and conscience instead. That, however, doesn't mean that we can't refrain from going back to our animalistic instincts. Moral reasoning and conscience require a higher level of thinking, while instincts are just reflexes that react for us, even without us knowing it. That's why it's so hard to be moral or conscientious all the time: the environmental clues have to be processed first. On the other hand, if something strikes against our values, we would react to it however what comes to our mind first, regardless whether it conflicts without our conscience or not (without being conscious about it until much later, of course).
Besides, it would be inaccurate to say that "humans are born naturally evil" simply because we don't do evil things all the time, even though it is inevitable in certain circumstances. How many times do we have to do bad things to be considered evil? I'd say once or twice would do. But how many times do we have to do good things to be recognized as a good person? Perhaps a hundred of times. Why? It is because we tend to overlook other people's generosity, altruism, and other positive attributes, while focusing on the "only" mistake that they've done, disregarding the good deeds they've been doing their whole life. Do we even know why they've done what they've done? They might just acted inappropriately on an impulse, like all of us have experienced before, but just in the wrong situation that led to heavy and unforgivable consequences. All I'm trying to say is that sometimes we act before we think, so we might not be aware of our personal values and conscience.
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