In order for us to find the foundation of our human nature, we must look beyond into our early years where human nature is dug deep into the roots of our history and involvements. About 97 years ago the horrific Genocide of the Armenians took place. Turkey has shown a classic example of the evil that can result by human beings. Millions of Armenians were slaughtered and murdered in front of their family members. The destruction that constantly plays out throughout the world is cuased by human beings. Hsun Tzu would have also agreed that the young Turks were in face by nature extremely evil.
April 24th is the day of grief for many Armenians. Almost every Armenian reminisces on their loved ones that they have lost during this time of year. About 1.5 million Armenians were horrifically dragged out of their homeland, western Armenia. This was to be known as the first Genocide during the 20th century. However, before the Armenian Genocide took place both the Turks and Armenians were peacefully living in the Ottoman Empire for years. Armenians were not great fully equal but they did in fact have no violence at the time. The reason why things were getting out of hand was because of nationalism. It was a new power in the world, which made the cultural alliance very significant. Therefore because of Nationalism the Ottoman Empire began to have problems. Also, Turkey was fearful of the Christian crusade, therefore things went politically worse because Armenians were starting to become the only major Christian minority. World War one then took place and it gave the Ottoman Empire the perfect change to reconstruct their Empire. World War one gave them the reason to continue with their plan, which was to eliminate the Armenian ra...
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...ld to do. Slaughtering thousands of Armenians, putting people’s heads on a stick and walking around with it with joy is definitely evil. This proves that human nature is evil. Only an evil person would do disgusting things to mothers, fathers, and innocent people. Committing a genocide is by fact part of human nature because humans were born with hatred. For example, a baby boy is playing with his toys when suddenly another child just comes and grabs the toys. The baby boy will react to this and grab his toys back and maybe even hit the other child for taking his possession. Hsun Tzu would say that this is an act of being evil in human nature. Our sudden instincts are to protect what we have. This connects to the Genocide, the Turks thought they had to kill the Armenians to get some piece of land. The land meant more to them than killing 1.5 million innocent people.
April 24th, 1915 marked the beginning of the first genocide of the 20th century, the Armenian Genocide. From April to October, 1918 approximately 1.8 million Armenian Turks were murdered by their fellow Turks. Leaders of this genocide were never brought to justice. The Turkish government managed to cover up the crimes, going as far as blackmailing other countries into ignoring the actions committed by the Turkish government during World War I. The United States is one of those countries. No recent American president in office has yet to acknowledge the events in the years 1915 - 1918 against the Armenian people as a genocide for fear of how it will affect the country’s relationship with Turkey. This fear has gone on to erase the topic from American discussion. The United States has a moral responsibility to hold the Turkish government responsible for this crime against humanity, as well as to take a step forward and have its citizens become educated about the Armenian Genocide. By doing so, it will reveal the cover up, hold the Turkish people responsible, and with great hope, the American citizens will come one step closer towards participating in ending future Holocausts, Rwandas, Bosnias, and Darfurs and their cover ups.
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 is where the theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke become interesting as both men differed in the way they believed human nature to be.
Tzu also states that, “ (man’s) goodness is the result of his activity” (198). This means that a man’s actions are what determine the goodness of such a man’s nature. However, Tzu explains that in reality man acts apparently good but only because his actions of goodness are born from selfish reasons. According to Tzu, because man’s nature is evil and his focus is on personal gain, man seeks the gain that comes from doing good. This idea continues to be argued today. One can find people in either side of this debate almost anywhere and anyplace. It is interesting to learn how his views on this matter originated from so long ago.
There was stirring animosity between the Armenians and the Turks prior to World War I, in 1894, thousands of Armenians were massacred by the Turkish due to their religious affiliation with Christianity, which juxtaposed the Islamic Turks with whom they lived with (Greene 125). The Armenians living in Turkey have been ostracized ever since, and increased tension between the Turks and Armenians was sparked by the beginning of World War I. On April 15th, 1914 the Armenians asked for German protection from the Turks, which the German government refused to avoid offending the Turkish Government (Gunter 46). The Germans began negotiations with Turkey about a week prior to the beginning to World War I on August 1st, 1914. 8 days after Germany declared war on Russia, the Turkish governm...
What is it that makes a person evil? Is it their actions, their words, or their thoughts? Is it more acceptable if “the end justifies the means”? Telling a lie that doesn’t have a negative effect on anyone, and that saves someone grief, is considered good. So why is killing someone to save others considered bad? The morality of an action is based solely on the outcome. Thus, doing anything whatsoever that is required to get the desired result, regardless of the methods used, would be considered “ok” if the result was of a good nature. Human nature is hardwired in us through the brain. So, human nature, being good or evil, is hardwired in us as well. It is our choice whether or not to act on these thoughts of sinful nature. For Iago, he not only thinks about crude things he also acts upon those thoughts. The actions of a military warrior, executed in normal society, show the “ethical blindness” of a man with no filter of morality ().
It is widely debatable whether humans are inherently good or evil. From the past, people had their own opinions on this topic, and the debate still goes on today. The Aphorism 17.2 “The Master said: By nature men are pretty much alike; it is learning and practice that set them apart.” from Confucius Analects conveys Confucius’s view of human nature. Confucianism was the most important philosophy of China throughout the history and it greatly influenced China. The relevance of Aphorism 17.2 to China’s many of history can be easily seen.
Behrens and Rosen asked, “What sort of people were responsible for the Holocaust, and for the long list of other atrocities that seem to blight the human record in every generation? Is it a lunatic fringe, a few sick but powerful people who are responsible for atrocities?” and the responded with “If so, then we decent folk needn’t ever look inside ourselves to understand evil since ever lurks out there.” Behrens and Rosen use this to construe that evil does not lurk only in lunatics but the ordinary person as well. Everyone is capable any act possible, the circumstances and the environment play an important role on what a person is capable of doing.
When people realize that good and evil are just points of view that are placed on other people and actions, it is possible to transcend these superficial roles. Since it is people who create the meaning of evil, it cannot be said that people are evil, or are born evil, because not only is that a perspective that is assumed onto others, which will change with different cultures, societies, and eras, but the very same acts may appear to be both good and evil, depending on the perspective in which the acts are seen. Ultimately, it is the individual’s responsibility to decide for himself the effects of his actions on himself and others.
In a Man 's Nature is Evil, men are depicted as evil since birth. Hsün Tzu declares that "Man 's nature is evil; goodness is the result of conscious activity" (Tzu 84). He speaks about how men are born with fondness for certain aspects of life such as profit, envy and beauty. Consequently, obtaining these aspects would lead to a life of violence, crime and recklessness. According to Tzu, men are born with a pleasure for profit. However, this need for riches will cause a man to have conflicts and altercations in his life. This is due to the fact that man will have such a great urge to obtain profit in life that he will go to all means necessary, including violence. Man is also born with envy and hate; it is not something he is taught. The internal struggle these two attributes have to offer will once
Hsun Tzu, a follower of Confucius, believed that human nature was to be fundamentally evil. Tzu, in “Encouraging Learning, wrote to Confucians questioning why should they be educated and what human nature really was. Since Confucius never stated his thought on human nature, some people suspect that humans needed to be educated not because they were evil, but because it was moral, and that way they could become into the person Confucius taught them to be. Tzu disagrees with this because of his belief, that humans, in fact, were born with wrong ideals. Tzu considers human nature to take its course on people, and that is why some people are inferior to others. But, with proper training and education, Tzu agrees Confucians can become a better person, and not just that they are becoming into the people that they are meant to be. It could be that Tzu wrote this to straighten out the mystery of what human nature was and how to fix humans evil nature.
When people hear genocide they normally think of the Holocaust which was the persecution of Jews by the Nazi’s. This took place under Adolf Hitler’s rule but there have been other genocides throughout history. The Armenian Genocide is one of the many that have taken place. It took place in the Ottoman Empire between the years of 1914 to 1918 (“Armenian” Armenian). It started when the “Young Turks” took control of the government (Beecroft). The Holocaust and Armenian genocide are similar in the reasons that started them, but they are different in who was involved and how the two genocides were executed.
Confucius, the founding philosopher of Confucianism, never explicitly details what he believes to be the inherent nature of humans. However, through his teachings and writings, his opinion can be understood to be that humans reach good nature, through self-cultivation and self-improvement. He believes that humans are improvable and teachable, but lack virtue. “Confucius
Confucius is known for stressing that human nature is intrinsically good. He stresses that human beings are born with the ability for differentiating between wrong and right. A person may not be aware from infancy which acts are tolerable and which acts are not, but all offspring feel shame, and once the children learn which deeds are bad or good, they have a normal tendency to consent of the former and criticize of the latter (Van and Bryan 27).
Humanity has a major flaw. It allows humans to be good, and live lives that seem perfect, and then all of a sudden it snatches the rug out from under their feet, causing a series of tumbles that throws humans into a pit. This pit is the pit of evil. It has all of humanity’s worst traits in it, and when people fall into it, they try to hoist themselves out by latching onto other people, even if they pull them down with them. Humans are good, until the bad creeps back in and poisons them. When that happens, humans cause all sorts of mayhem, but through it all, they somehow survive. The human race will always be bad, and that is the truth. It will stay like this indefinitely. It’s humanity’s greatest flaw.
...ing, it is safe to say that humans are not by nature evil but instead, they are good but easily influenced by the environment and society to act in evil way and do such evil things. You choose the road you want to take; either it’s the bad road or the good road. We are all born to live a life where we will be faced with good and evil things. We were not born to be an evil or bad person, but as you get older you make that choice. What do you want to be remembered as: the good or the bad person? Choose to be good over being bad because the rewards to your family, your friend, and yourself will always outweigh the bad.