Are Human Beings Inherently Good or Bad?

Running head: ARE HUMAN BEINGS INTRINSICALLY GOOD OR BAD?
ARE HUMAN BEINGS INTRINSICALLY GOOD OR BAD?
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1ARE HUMAN BEINGS INTRINSICALLY GOOD OR BAD?
Are human beings intrinsically good or bad? Are they naturally born to be sinful and
immoral creatures, which need to be kept in check with the laws either from the state or from
any God or are they intrinsically good? This is the question that has been repeatedly asked all
through the humanity and is still often comes up in various discussions. For hundreds of
years, the philosophers have argued whether human beings have a naturally good nature
which is gradually corrupted by their society or they have a naturally bad nature which is kept
in check by the same (Habermas 2014). The ones who are in for of the concept that human
beings are intrinsically bad claim that if there were no laws that governs the living styles and
the behaviour of the people and that threaten them with penalties and punishments if they fail
to obey those laws, then human beings would be totally out of control and we all would be
living in a huge turmoil and chaos. Such people claim the same, pointing at their own
experiences that are negative and at the examples of the people living in the societies all
around the globe who are manipulative, jealous, corrupt, illusive, misleading and brutal. It is
indeed true because, in today’s era, when majority of the people in this society are observed,
it really seems like the human beings have a huge range of poor qualities and that they cannot
be believed. But the question is- Is this naturally the case?
When it comes to the question of human nature, we need to ask ourselves how human
beings would be behaving if they were not affected by their society right before determining
whether human beings are intrinsically good or bad. It is very necessary to look towards the
forces that prevails within the human beings that operate and shape their behaviour. It is their
primary biological instincts that drives the human beings at their fundamental level. These
biological instincts refers to the key programming of life that is behind their basic desires and
needs and these are something that define the way they behave. These basic needs prevail in
support of a single instinctive desire- “We Want to Live”. If seen rationally, it will make
totally zero sense for the nature to naturally comprise of any desire in an individual which

2ARE HUMAN BEINGS INTRINSICALLY GOOD OR BAD?
would contradict his or her instinctive desire for living. If it did, then the whole species would
self-immolate. It simply signifies that “the natural human behaviour resulting from the
primary biological instincts will always be consistent with the primordial (instinctive) desire
to live” (Pinkers 2017). Therefore, the basic needs comprise of social interactions and
communication, which benefit life and help in ensuring that it would move on.
On the other hand, if nature is studied, it could be seen that even at the most primary
level of biology, people have a tendency of helping and supporting one another at their hard
times. For instance, at cellular level, the social amoeba assist one another at the time of
storing food (Queller and Strassmann 2018). The same is in the case of animals like
elephants, wolves, chimpanzees and dolphins who exhibit reciprocity, affection and empathy.
Human beings too are the same under supportive and natural environment (Goudie 2018).
They too, want to live like individuals but at the same time, they also want to assist others for
satisfying their fundamental necessity and survive. It makes them stronger as species and also
fortify their long lasting survival.
It is also to mention that the things begin to go wrong when the external forces in the
society hamper with the desire of human beings to live. Confronting with the direct or the
indirect threats and challenges on their respective lives along with the achievement of their
primary needs, any organism would start behaving in extreme manner out of self-preservation
and self-defence and human beings are no way different in this regard. If human beings are
placed in combative environment, they would start to show strange and extreme behaviour
(based on the severity of the challenge). As stated by Sheridan (2016), “Currently the
societies we have around the world are all hostile towards humans; they’re fundamentally
flawed and evil, purposefully designed to weaken every individual so that he can be easily
controlled, manipulated and enslaved”. Such societies force the people to follow to a
defective system and in the whole process let them to grow a ravening behaviour. For