Human Nature

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supercool3

@supercool3

Alumni

+ 5

Posted: 15 years ago

Ok so this was a question that has been going through my head recently. As I take philosophy as a course, I had to come across this.

Soo .. my questions is... do the social institutions around us tend to corrupt a fundamentally good human nature, or do they tame a fundamentally evil human nature ?

Like, we're all raised with certain morals, ethics, culture and everything that falls under the basic standards of society. And the usual opinion I hear regarding that is it saves us from being uncivilized savages.

And for me, this question came as an eye-opener..... mainly because I never thought about it in this angle

soo before anyone jumps on me... I'm NOT criticizing any of the morals or ethics people follow. I myself do follow them and I'm happy that they do exist in society

i'm looking forward to answers regarding what human nature might really be like...

what to do... curiosity kills 😆

Be nice :)

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gopalbhai

@gopalbhai

Voyager

Posted: 15 years ago

My personal opinion has always been that so called good nature is due to the rules and norms laid down by the society. Without basic directive of good or bad being put into the human mind, there will not be any human like behavior at all. If basic human nature is good, then we should leave a baby in an island and allow to grow to an adult and see if he fares any better than an animal. We can also observe the existing primitive isolated groups and see that they tend to be violent and do things not considered good by civilized wold. I think the idea of basic human nature might have come from the fact that babies and children seem to be innocent and they seem to develop the bad qualities later. But then the need and desires also are developed with physical and mental development as the grow.

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return_to_hades

@return_to_hades

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 15 years ago

"Man is born free, but found everywhere in chains"

Sadly, those lines by Rousseau are all I recollect from my Lord of The Flies paper. It was dark, it was sordid, but it was kick ass. Even the teacher said so, not in those words but in good grades and high praise.

Spark notes does a good job with symbolism from the book. However, to add my take. We are all hunting the beast. Everyone of us is following Jack, because there is a beast out there and it will get us until we do something about it. Cut the pig. Slit her throat. Spill her blood. The funny thing is there really is no beast. The beast is all in our heads. As humans we are free, our spirits and souls are free. However, we chain ourselves down with the beast of our mind. And that is human nature.

Its about time someone told us 'The cake is a lie'

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StarshineHues

@StarshineHues

Sparkler

+ 2

Posted: 15 years ago

Awesome post V !!

You know, there's this quote by Stephen King, "Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." I think the social institutions we have in place basically exist to prevent these ghosts/monsters inside us from winning too often. I think inherently, every human-being knows the difference b/w good and bad, moral and immoral. But sometimes, we become short-sighted and tend to lose track. The social institutions, in my opinion, exist to enforce what we already know, and to make sure we don't stray too often or for too long.

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mysterieux

@mysterieux

Rocker

+ 3

Posted: 15 years ago

Well I think it works both ways.....coz without rules, ethics and morals in place...there would just be a very free society with no control...and too much control...would surmount to dictatorship...its all about the balance...and that is a very hard thing to acheive...I for one...appreciate the rules being in place...because in this world/society of people with myriad of emotions nature ...and temptations...restraint is a good thing....in balance.

Awesome😃

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Tasmeena Ali

@TazzyA

Voyager

Posted: 15 years ago

It's an interesting topic yaar, i've always been a muslim and follow islam quite vigourously. but in regards to your question on human nature, i think that people have a choice, yes okay religion and ethics provide a foundation for us to follow, but it does not out-rule the act of free will. People can often choose the path of bad inspite of being raised in a moraly-driven family with good values. in my POV it depends on how the person themselves choose to live their life, we all have choices and in making those choices we set a pave stone in our life, at times its difficult to know which decision to make but ther is always a distinctive deffierence between the right and wrong, thus people have it in their hands to decide. hope i made sense 😆 basically we may have free will, but it doesn not atone for the bad deeds we may do, even those brought up in pristigeiously religious and ethical families go astray. x

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344471

Suspended

Posted: 15 years ago

Originally posted by: gopalbhai
My personal opinion has always been that so called good nature is due to the rules and norms laid down by the society. Without basic directive of good or bad being put into the human mind, there will not be any human like behavior at all. If basic human nature is good, then we should leave a baby in an island and allow to grow to an adult and see if he fares any better than an animal. We can also observe the existing primitive isolated groups and see that they tend to be violent and do things not considered good by civilized wold. I think the idea of basic human nature might have come from the fact that babies and children seem to be innocent and they seem to develop the bad qualities later. But then the need and desires also are developed with physical and mental development as the grow.

I agree with the latter part of your post. I don't see how babies are oh-so-innocent. They can, at best, be called neutral. Granted that they aren't evil, but their brains aren't developed enough to allow or entertain any negative - or positive on that case - thoughts that the adult brains can.

However, I do believe that human beings have a sense of morality that is independent of the cultural or social norms or their respective religious beliefs. The society does play a very significant part here; but I do think human morality or ethics goes beyond our social norms or beliefs. As for the bolded, I have been curious about that too. Has there been any studies done on that? We know about ethnic or indigenous groups, but what about an individual being brought up by himself alone and no one else? What happens to his sense of morality then? What about his religious or theological beliefs?

Edited by PhoeniXof_Hades - 15 years ago

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344471

Suspended

Posted: 15 years ago

Originally posted by: return_to_hades
Cut the pig. Slit her throat. Spill her blood.

Just finished the book a couple of days ago. One of the most deep, thought-provoking, and fascinating book I have read in recent times.

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return_to_hades

@return_to_hades

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 15 years ago

Originally posted by: PhoeniXof_Hades

Just finished the book a couple of days ago. One of the most deep, thought-provoking, and fascinating book I have read in recent times.

I'm glad you finally finished reading the book. It is fascinating isn't it.

Keeping this topic in mind isn't it interesting how the characters in the book represent various facets of human nature. They all are children – seemingly innocent. The isolation on an island away from society sheds their innocent skin and brings out the human nature.

Simon is the spiritual side. He sees things from a spiritual aspect trying to find deeper meaning in things. Piggy is the rational side. He naturally sees things from a civilized perspective. It is in his nature to bring about law and order and establishment. Then finally there is Jack the savage. The most barbaric and animistic of them all. He does not care for civilization or spirituality.