Why do humans act the way they do? What makes the human mind decide to be good or evil? As seen throughout literature, it is a matter of human nature, the fundamental ideas that sit at the foundation of humanity. The actions of people affect the world around us, therefore the why our actions are affected also influences the world around us. Humans can be good or evil, and morals and feelings guide actions and determine what side of the line one stands on, making human nature unpredictable and complex. The varying morals of people elicits different actions, because the morals motivate people to act based upon what they think is best. While on the island there are two decidedly distinct group of boys, the savages and the civilized. The boys …show more content…
In the closing of Zimbardo’s TED talk, he talks about how we can become a hero, and most of it is changing our mindset. “To be a hero, you have to learn to be a deviant, because you're always going against the conformity of the group. Heroes are ordinary people whose social actions are extraordinary. Who act.” (Zimbardo). Human nature can negatively affect and positively affect people's actions. Evolving and learning is another basic function of humans. As one may learn not to touch the stove through experience, or as one gets better through practice it can be seen that humans are not static. Zimbardo thinks that to improve and to become heroes it is essential to use this dynamic nature and learn how to become a “deviant”. His emphasis is on improving and learning how to go against “the conformity of the group”, or in other words doing what is thought to be right instead of what is expected. The morals do not start out this way and they have to be changed. For example, as the story goes on in The Impossible, Lucas continues to listen to his mother despite fearing that he may lose her, "Lucas, go and help people. You're good at it." (The Impossible). While he may have not done this before he listens to his mother and goes to help families find each other. Unfortunately, his fears come true when he comes back and his mother is not where he had left her. She had been in poor condition when she had sent him off on the quest to help people, and possibly could have not made it. The positive side of this is his growth. He is willing to leave and go help people. As he does this he sees the effect of it, and how when he does reunite a child and their parent how happy they are. Adolescents are not fully developed, and this includes Lucas. When put in this situation he is learning that helping has a positive effect on the people around him, and hopefully this affects his
morals are acquired, and conformity to a standard of right is attained. In the novel The
Instead human nature is shown to exhibit both good and bad with dynamic results. Human nature encourages us to feel and experience a range of emotions. Happiness, sadness, love and hate are all natural feeling that helps to shape our personality. To help the elderly, to feed the poor, to shelter the homeless, to nurture a baby are all elements of human nature and incorporated into the way humans interact within society. The basic human emotions that drive people are love and hate, within these two come other emotions, sympathy, forgivness, revenge and jealousy.
across all of our written history have discovered the importance of knowing human nature. Human nature is responsible for our definitions of abstract concepts that are surprisingly universal across the western world like justice, equity, and law. Human nature must also be carefully studied in an effort to understand, obtain, or maintain power within society. Finally, human nature must also be carefully understood so as to protect it from being manipulated and to understand its place in society.
Many people have different views on the moral subject of good and evil or human nature. It is the contention of this paper that humans are born neutral, and if we are raised to be good, we will mature into good human beings. Once the element of evil is introduced into our minds, through socialization and the media, we then have the potential to do bad things. As a person grows up, they are ideally taught to be good and to do good things, but it is possible that the concept of evil can be presented to us. When this happens, we subconsciously choose whether or not to accept this evil. This where the theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke become interesting as both men differed in the way they believed human nature to be. Hobbes and Locke both picture a different scene when they express human nature.
When the boys are on the island there is no one to look after them and they have to do everything themselves. They make their own decisions and rules. As the boys’ little society begins to crack, so do their rules. They boys do cruel things that they normally wouldn’t do:
The difference in the way humans perceive things is part of the complexity of mankind. What is thought of as evil to one person can be seen as good to another, and vice versa. The issue of good and evil is brought up in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, when innocent boys are set on an island to bear the weight of society on their backs. What happens to them? How do past influences effect them? Are their actions good or evil? The actions of the boys were not a matter of being good or evil, but were actions for survival. A man’s environment does not influence him towards good or evil, nor is he born with it inside. Man has instincts and inner drives that are not matters of good and evil, but of survival.
It explains how can good people become perpetrators of evil and commit dreadful crimes. In the book, Zimbardo highlighted three psychological truth. First is that the world full with both evil and good, the barrier between the two is absorbent, and angels and devils can switch. Zimbardo claims that the one easily switch from someone good to someone who can hardly recognize himself or herself. He suggest that the one must be watchful and be stronger that the circumstances. In military and especially during war, the have no time to watch himself and see the person that they are turning to because they think that this is their job and it is orders that they can not disobey. Zimbardo utter that when the one is believed that others will be responsible for his or her actions, the one believe that they can act incognito and thinking that they people who are suffering are not as important. According to Zimbardo the conditions of the situation is what influence personal
Whether or not humans are instinctively good or evil has been a much talked about debate for many years and is known as an unanswerable question. Determinists, such as Thomas Hobbs, have come to the conclusion that humans are naturally evil and it is within our basic instincts to be greedy, selfish and otherwise drawn to chaos. Hobbs states that “our true nature arises in times of strife and it is within us, when threatened, to self preserve.” I on the other hand disagree with this famous philosophers take on human nature. In this short essay, I will argue that human beings are born with the instinct to be good and to love one another, as well as to be loved.
Human nature is like water, there is no water that does not flow downward just as there are no humans that are not good (122). Human nature does not show any bias towards good or bad, just like water human nature can be guided to a certain endpoint (122). As a result man can be made to do bad (122). Humans have an instinct to do good, but sometimes they stray from that instinct and do bad (129). All humans are capable of doing good (125). Some humans become good by nature and others become bad by nature, an example would be the good King Wen and the cruel King Wu (125). Human’s are sensitive to the suffering of other humans (38). In human nature the morally strong look after those who are not morally strong (89). Human’s love those that love them (94). Humans will follow benevolent rulers and will be willing to die for them (26).
Human nature is a concept that has interested scholars throughout history. Many have debated over what human nature is – that is, the distinguishing characteristics that are unique to humans by nature – while others have mulled over the fact that the answer to the question “what is human nature?” may be unattainable or simply not worth pursuing. Shakespeare explores the issue of human nature in his tragedy King Lear. In his play, he attempts to portray that human nature is either entirely good or entirely evil.
When the children become stranded on the island, the rules of society no longer apply to them. Without the supervision of their parents or of the law, the primitive nature of the boys surfaces, and their lives begin to fall apart. The downfall starts with their refusal to gather things for survival. The initial reaction of the boys is to swim, run, jump, and play. They do not wish to build shelters, gather food, or keep a signal fire going. Consequently, the boys live without luxury that could have been obtained had they maintained a society on the island. Instead, these young boys take advantage of their freedom and life as they knew it deteriorates.
“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” (Eleanor Roosevelt). This is just one of the infinite examples of how human nature has been explored by so many different people. Each and every human is born with the capability of making their own choices. The decisions that they will make in the future will determine how evil they are viewed by others. Although one’s nature and nurture do affect their life, it is their own free will that determines whether or not they are evil.
There is another type of hero that almost no one is aware of. In the poorest areas of the country, live mostly minorities and other ethic background. All their lives they’ve been expected to work harder and expected not succeed in life. Some individuals living in poverty with a determination to succeed work hard all of their lives to become what everybody doubted they could. Escaping the crime, drugs, and prostitution is enough to escape hell, even if they don’t go to college. Despite of their financial problems, drug and crime surroundings, or difficulties in the language skills, their desire to triumph fuels their persistence. Those who make it to success are the few living examples of the purest form of hero anyone can be. They are not only their own heroes but also the heroes of the poor children who dream of becoming like them someday.
The purpose of this essay will be to discuss whether human nature is good, or evil, or both good and evil, or neither good nor evil. To facilitate the following discussion, human nature here would be defined as the distinguishing characteristics we born with, that we tend to have naturally without the influence of external factors. The definition agrees to Xunzi’s, that nature is what is given by Heaven: one cannot learn it; one cannot acquire it by effort. This essay will explain that the deepest essence of human nature is self-preservation and reproduction, which cannot be truly classified into good or evil. It is followed by how we are diverged to behave goodly or badly, argument against the “good nature theory” and different between self-preservation with greed and aggression.
While a person’s surroundings shape them, basic human nature sets the limits. Human nature, while complicated, encompasses aspects that help construct and drive it. One’s nature serves as a force that aids everyday decisions. It plays a much more important role in the life of a person than one realizes. Human nature guides the course of one’s actions and thoughts. Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and Murder at the Vicarage both demonstrate that, ordinarily, in societies people obey social and moral laws; however, if following these rules does not enable a person to satisfy their needs, human nature turns and allows justice, greed, fear and in some cases, innate evil to lead to criminal action. Expand