Psychology debate #3: Are people...

[Flappy]

Are people inherently good/evil/neither?


Opinions and evidence?

[Freddy]

I think that:

a) Perception of good and evil are different from person to person, but general rules are set by society.
b) That perception compared to the general rules is what makes someone "good" or "evil".
c) Each person's perception of good and evil is influenced by external factors, mainly by how they were brought up.
d) If someone's definition of "good" is against society's definition, they are seen as "evil".

[Ryan]

Good and evil are relative norms that equate the value of an action, and subsequently the characteristic of a thing. Since good an evil are relative norms, that means that they are not definitive, but rather change based on their perception. This would allow that one person can perceive something as good, while another could perceive it as bad. That means that any one point, nothing is definitely either good or evil, since it can be perceived as either. Since nothing can be good or evil in definition, it is impossible for someone to be born good or evil.

[SwimFellow]

Yeah.. I think that people are taught to be good/evil. Yeah.. Not much more to say. I don't think good/evil has a very big genetic factor.

[Nakor]

People are inherently social animals, and will tend to follow the flow of society. This can be seen in the way the zeitgeist changes over time; two millennia ago having slaves and beating women was seen as nothing particularly terrible; now, it is. Children will tend to want to learn the societal norms and will tend to try to act 'good' within those norms.

Whether those norms are good or not is up to debate; I tend to imagine that in several millennia, at least something of what we do (even the most progressive among us) will be seen as terrible just as we see slavery in the past as terrible. There will be some thing that hasn't occurred to us -- some blind spot we haven't uncovered -- and advancement will continue.

[stephen5000]

I don't know if It's genetics or society, but a large number of people act in a manner that I would consider evil. That is, that we are extremely selfish and really don't care at all about the needs and feelings of others. Now, this is just the culture I'm familiar with. I'm just thinking of our western capitalist culture which actually glorifies all seven of the traditional deadly sins.

[Xanast]

I was born evil. I can't help it, my urges to do evil just come out of nowhere.

[Captain Giggle Squash]

Yeah right, which explains why you cower in fear every time I walk by you in the hallways at school -.-

[Xanast]

I don't cower, I try to keep myself from destroying you. I know where you live Giggles.......

[Lex]

Good and evil are human concepts, not something genetic or inherited. I thought this was common knowledge?

[Captain Giggle Squash]

Dec 28, 2010 20:14:44 GMT -5 Xanast said:

I don't cower, I try to keep myself from destroying you. I know where you live Giggles.......

Dude, don't even make yourself look cooler, you're younger and weaker than I am you don't know any form of martial arts and your "attempts" to hurt me are futile, both you and your brother latch on to me at the same time and you still can bring me down. I could kick your scrawny ass in a fight any day.

[Freddy]

...

Yeah... ummmm... Evil?

[ryan]

i have alwaysconsidered things from a species stand poit like is it good for manking
say cutting trees
it builds shelter but is it good for the human race in the long run?

[Lex]