There is a famous controversial topic that has been discussed by many philosophers for ages. “Is man good or evil?”
Even though it is a topic that is still being discussed, no one true answer to that has been found yet. It is obvious and can be agreed by many people that there are good and evil people all over the world. The real question is about the nature of humans. Are humans inherently good or evil? One of the reasons that this topic is very controversial is that it involves our own species. Human nature which is talked about is the instincts, pure feelings, and thoughts of people before they are experienced or simply affected by their surroundings.
There are many theories and philosophers which defend that humans are inherently evil creatures. The most popular examples of this way of thinking come from the writer William Golding, philosopher Immanuel Kant, philosopher Xun Kuang, and Thomas Hobbes. Thomas Hobbes believes that selfishness is one of the biggest qualities that a human being have naturally. Which demonstrates that humans are inherently evil. It is in their nature to only think about themselves and not about others. That thought of Hobbes actually made him also believe that since men are inherently evil, they should not be able to govern themselves and he defended monarchy. The source of the thought of men being naturally evil mostly comes from selfishness which can be observed in any human being. Most philosophers who believe that men are inherently evil, they also believe that humans are born selfish which causes most of the evilness they contain.
On the other hand, as well as the philosophers, there are many theories that defend the idea that humans are inherently good creatures. The most known example of that is the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Also, great philosophers such as Plato and Socrates believed that men are actually inherently good beings. Plato even once said: “Evil acts are committed only out of ignorance. As a result, it is inherently against human nature to be evil. Therefore evil cannot live in the hearts of people.” which demonstrates that he doesn’t believe that evil has a place in human nature. He defends the evil acts of a human being made from ignorance and doesn’t actually come from the nature of that person. Some theories defend the idea of the human being naturally good such as the Pragmatic Theory of Truth, the Divine Command Theory, and the Correspondence Theory of Truth. According to all of those theories, humans are inherently good creatures.
Although there are many other, more detailed, arguments on this topic; I personally believe that human is inherently mostly evil. I believe we learn to be good instead of naturally being good creatures. Finally, even though I believe that we are mostly inherently evil creatures, I also still think that there is some good in human nature as well as evil.