Do you believe that most people are inherently good?

Answer 1

given the opportunity, all people are good

Answer 2

Belief-- usually means assumption of truth.
Inherently-- A natural part or consequence of something. Again implying that something "is" this and nothing else. There is no way to to know for sure.
Good-- How can one know what is going on with another to assume it's good. Usually by a group of folks who share the same assumptions of truth. Probably a little lazy and a bit dishonest.

Answer 3

"Good" implies the freedom to do evil, so it's better to ask if people are free. If they're not free, "goodness" is an irrelevant concept. But for now, lets follow our empirical evidence of everyday life, and assume we have freedom.
___But freedom doesn't give much guidance; it would seem a crap shoot, 50-50, good-evil. Why believe otherwise?
___First, we value good. Of course, it's an empty statement to say so, but we treat good as better than evil. it's a shared value.
___And despite the claims of extreme subjectivism, thare are lots of shared features in all human lives, and even in human cognition. We inhabit the same world, and learn more or less the same means to manipulate phyicsl things in the world and the concepts appropriate to them in our minds. There are marginal differences, but we all know what physical work is, and what it is to be tired. So there is a basis for empathy.
___On the other hand, we have private consciousnesses, and no direct access to what's going on in others' minds, and individual variations in our life-histories. There are bases for misunderstandings and conflict.
___There are many agreements between the value-systems of the world, regarding how to be good people.
___So are people inherently good? I don't think so. People are contingently good, that is, there's nothing inherent in being human that forces us necessarily to do good, but there are circumstances that increase the likelihood of people doing good. Many of these rely on good ideology, shared beliefs that either put a vision of good out in front of us as ideals, or appropriate theories about human nature that allow us to have reasonable expectations of people.
___But we must beware of cultures or movements that can influence people to do evil. Bad ideology can turn people's behavior evil. Junk social science that's politically driven is a major modern version of bad ideology. We can't very well solve human problems if we have incorrect or politically-fudged diagnoses.
___So, by the way, if you want to look for modern influences toward evil, look to those who say it's OK to lie (or massage the data) for a good cause. If you have to lie, you can't say with assurance that the cause is really good.

Answer 4

Yes. If most people were not inherently good, there would be no good in the world, as it is less work and easier to be bad.

Answer 5

Most people just are...

Society determines if the behavior is good or bad. Let's look at Lot when he was in Sodom. Some strangers came to pay him a visit. The norm of the village was that strangers were not tolerated. Lot offered the gathering mob his virgin daughter to have their way with, rather than harm his visitors. God found Lot to be righteous. Go figure...

Answer 6

"Good" and "Evil" are just labels that we create based on our subjective perceptions and conceptions of reality and human behavior. People are inherently *human*, and have the potential to express an extremely wide range of normal (and abnormal) behaviors as a result. Although this may sound like a morally relativistic position, it does not require us to abandon the concepts as useful tools for describing and attaching value judgements to the behavior, just an understanding of the limitations of the labels, and their lack of connection to objective truth.

Answer 7

There are people who are inherently good. But I also think there are those who are just inherently bad.

Answer 8

nope.
Why would we have the word evil? Wouldn't people be more inclined not to do things that are not entirely good? Would there be violent films?

There is no backing to any form of predestined behaviors. If you do something it is because you made a conscious decision good, evil, or stupid.

Answer 9

People are people. We are ying and yang. All of us. I think we are then what we choose to be. If we choose to nurture the ying that is what people see and therefore label us that and vice versa with the yang. The great thing is that since we are both we can choose to be either at any point in time and therefore we are also neither.

Answer 10

I believe that there are three different types of people: good, bad, and normal. You ask me "What is good, what is bad, and what is normal anymore?" Well, good is the built in intention to wish pleasurable things upon other people, bad is the built in intention to wish harm upon other people, and normal, well that's the built in intention between good and bad. Normal is wanting to kill someone if he pisses you off enough and wanting to wish pleasurable things upon him/her, and yet having no feeling whatsoever if the person has done nothing towards or against you.

Answer 11

I think that everyone that is born has the ability to choose to be good....sometimes through environmental changes or habits they become bad people....Even the seriel killers that are truly evil had something go wrong with them.....But I don't think a child is born evil I think society makes them that way