Are Human Beings Born with an Innate

Tendency to be Good or Bad?

Thesis: An individual cannot be classed into the two extremes of the

contemporary scale of morality. Human beings exhibit a duality of traits that are
considered to be good or bad, which have been shaped over the years by
philosophical and religious institutions. A myriad of factors play a role in
determining the makeup of the human psyche, thus it can be said the human
mind is composite in nature. Partially uphold myth (Thesis is obviously open to
alteration).

What is the myth? /Origins

Socratic View

Upheld the belief that no one chooses to commit evil

Wrongdoing is the result of ignorance
Indicates that humans dont do wrong willingly, due to the basic instinct of
self interest

http://www.socraticmethod.net/socratic_essay_nature_of_human_evil.htm

Thomas Hobbs

Actions and motives determined by biomechanical motives

Good/evil depends on what individual loves
Humans are naturally equal in the control of mind/body, no individual is
capable of dominating all other indefinitely

https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/Philosophers/Hobbes/hobbes_hu
man_nature.html

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Believed that man is naturally good and that vice and error are alien to
him
Nature is mans state before being influenced by outside forces
Humans need an external influence to develop their natural prosperity for
good

http://decodedpast.com/jean-jacques-rousseau-good-nature-corrupted-
society/3811
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com.au/2006/06/are-humans-good-or-bad-
hobbes-vs.html

(The information here is really interesting and if its presented well I believe that
we can get a high mark for quality of information. Im also having alternating
thoughts on whether we should talk about the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
or not)

Evidence supporting/against myth

Evolutionary Psychology
An explanation for dominance and power (certain abuses of power
occur)
Was Stalins rampage a result of evolutionary psychology? (Natural
tendency to abuse people after gaining immense power Can be
explained by Social Dominance Theory). See first link
The Stanford Prison Experiment (This is a great example of Social
Dominance Theory)
The second link below strongly confirms the Nazi theory of Aryanism
(Look at number 2 in article)

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470672532.wbepp253/full

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3260849/

Neuropsychology
Pretty self-explanatory

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3770908/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3163302/

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0306624X02462004

The Human Condition

Also self-explanatory

https://www.humancondition.com/human-condition/

We will have to come together and decide which evidence supports and rejects
the myth. These are the factors that I can come up with. Please feel free to add
information (or remove, depending on relevance). Hopefully we should be able
to do a comparative analysis of the evidence and immediately begin to create a
PowerPoint. I would appreciate it if someone can do research on the practical
implications of our theory.

Cheers guys, see you on Saturday.