How do humans decide good or evil ?
Alexis F2J
With that idea, the question ‘ How do humans decide what is good and evil ?’ has been asked by philosophers and
the curiosity of human beings for many years and yet it known to be one of the unanswerable question. Though
human nature is infinitely more complex than this, of course when in human beings, ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are fluid. This
idea is based off the fact that when people did “good” things towards another human being, their heart would rather
have an exultant feeling. In which the opposite, when humans do things that are considered ‘evil’, their heart will have
a feeling of such guilt. Most likely, this shows the cycle of the ‘good’ or ‘evil’ decision .This is especially supported by
the fact that we ,humans decide what is good and evil with the method of psychology. This is one subject that has
been argued over centuries : To what extent are people evil and good ? Some believe in ultimate hierarchy and there
should be one ultimate government. These unanswerable questions yet again, for thousands of years, philosophers
debated on these questions whether we have a good nature that is corrupted by society, or a bad nature that is kept
in check by society. Psychology has uncovered some evidence which might give this long in the tooth topic a twist.
As we look further more into these unanswerable questions - signposting the side topics, we will be covering up the
side topics such as concept of evil and good, the terms of good and evil, culture and the decision of good and evil
depends on the specific situation.
Fundamentally speaking, what is the concept of good and evil ? where do they come from ? are they decided by
individuals, the government, or a greater power ? - surely the curiosity is getting into you as well. But what do we
really mean when we use these such simple terms ‘good’ and ‘evil’?. First and foremost, ‘good’ means a lack of
egocentric. Meaning the ability to empathizes with other people, to feel the compassion for them, and put their needs
before your own. Also meaning that, if necessary, sacrificing their own well-being for the sake of others’. Meaning
benevolence, altruism and selflessness, and self-sacrifice causes a sense of empathy. It means being able to
perceive beyond the superficial differences between race, gender, or nationality and associate with an ordinary
human essence beneath them. Almost most of the ‘saintly’ people in human history like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin
Luther King in which risk their own safety and well-being for the sake of gaining equal rights and freedom for Indians
and African Americans. These were examples of human beings with an exceptional degree of empathy and
compassion. While in different circumstances, ’evil’ people are those who are unable to empathizes with others.
Stated by https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concept-evil/ , as a result, their own needs and desire are of foremost
importance. They are labeled selfish, self- absorbed, and narcissistic. This would apply to Stalin and Hitler, and to
serial killers, rapists, pedophiles. They can’t seem to sense other people’s emotion or suffering ; and only care about
their own emotion or suffering, can’t see the world from other people's perspectives, leading to having no sense of
rights. implying that ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are decided between themselves with their actions. They view other humans like
a toy ; an object. Such a menacing oversimplification to believe that some people are innately ‘good’ while on the
other hand, are innately ‘evil’. This misleading concept underpins the justice system of numerous countries - ‘bad’
people commit crimes, and since they are intrinsically labeled as ‘evil’, they should be locked away in jail. This
concept has also fueled wars and conflicts throughout history, and even in today.
In consideration of the concept of good and evil, when it comes with the decision of good and evil in which depends
on the specific situation and personal judgement, the actions of ‘ good’ and ‘evil’ recognizes a change. Suppose you
found a person in which is a victim of a road accident meaning that the victim needs to be immediately conveyed to
hospital, otherwise he may die. He needs to be given immediate action. No vehicle is available, but you see a vehicle
in an ordinary course may be wrong and considered to be an ‘evil’ act, but most would also violate the rule in a case
like this. Promptly, we would feel as if it is right to save the life of the victim. This is in a view of the fact that the moral
value of one’s life is higher value than protecting the vehicle meaning that the actions of ‘evil' might considered to be
‘good’ during these situation and the actions of ‘good’ might considered to be ‘evil’. In other perspective,
understanding of temptation is salient to one’s ability to realize when one is being tempted and what the right path to
choose. A clear showing of temptation of life in is if you see someone drop their wallet on the ground. The temptation
would be to keep it or do what is considered as the ‘right ‘ thing and give it back to them. By keeping the wallet your
actions will be given into temptation and sinned, but by returning the wallet, your actions will be considered as good.
The idea of temptation can be related to the ideas of evil, one’s soul power, and one’s idea on deciding what is good
and evil at the specific situation. We might compare temptation to evil and how darkness represents evil.
In addition to the decision of good and evil on the specific situation, culture, personality, along with self-interest and
morality is the top tier answer the topic question “how do humans good and evil?”. Most of us lie somewhere between
the extremes of Gandhi and Hitler on the spectrum of human behavior. The real difference between the idea of ‘good
and evil’ and the traditional concept is that empathy or the lack of empathy that isn’t fixed. Despite the fact that people
with a psychopathic personality ( renamed antisocial personality disorder) appear to be unable to evolve empathy.
For most of us, empathy is a quality that can be cultivated. This can be recognized by Buddhism, Catholics,
Christians and most other spiritual traditions. As we practice mediation or mindfulness, we become less attached to
materialism and status-seeking. Slowly we become more connected to each other and altruistic. Some would seek
help from their religious to determine rather a person is good or evil. Within Judaism and Christianity, there are
multitudinous ideas about who or what is good and evil. Many of these idea contradict with each other. It seems as
though ‘good’ and ‘evil’ is based on more of people’s perspective than a set in stone definition. Such as “ good”
people in Judaism and Christianity people are people who are willing to do sacrifice rituals in order to “please” god.
Our obsession with benefiting ourselves brings up the relationship between self- interest and morality. Apparently on
the authority of http://www.socraticmethod.net/socratic_essay_nature_of_human_evil.htm , deciding that a particular
behavior is morally evil in a particular circumstances is a value that can only be obtruded by a self-interested human
being. A non self-interested being is incapable of convincing themselves about what is good and evil in a moral
sense. Additionally, our self-interest is the foundation of our captivity to be moral. Our instinct to benefit ourselves to
make our participation in moral choices possible.
Though the actions based on self-interest and morality are negative as it is already ,there’s an even more downside
to this argument. Psychology doesn’t always have to do with how humans decide what is good and evil. A way to
show this is by a Chinese Confucian philosopher called Xunzi. Xunzi rejected the idea that humans had a natural
inclination towards goodness. According to https://www.iep.utm.edu/xunzi/, Xunzi conjurers that humans were born
with an evil mind and if the mind is properly under training sessions, only then may it lead to goodness. He believed
that all humans are bad by nature but did not disagree that their heart, personal experiences and interactions could
help cure such evil minds as well as embodying human goodness. For instance, he believed that babies’ are evil
because as soon as they are born, they do not know any better. They did not know what is considered to be ‘good’
and ‘evil’. If a baby were to pull its mothers’ hair, it will not be considered to be an ‘evil’ action. Although Xunzi
believed this way, Mencius opposed that idea. Stated by https://plato.stanford.edu/entrie s/mencius/, Mencius - a
Chinese Confucian philosopher, claimed that “human nature is good” and that is the evil situations/ surroundings that
makes the person to act evil. In the beginning, we mentioned about how some believe in ultimate hierarchy and there
should be one ultimate government. This half also tends to believe humans are inherently evil. There are some are
some who believe whether a person is good or evil depending on their need for survival, the way they were born or
the way they were raised. Based on all these points of evidence, we can say that humanity is good until they are
given an excessive amount of power, their situation or environment resulting them to not knowing what ‘good’ and
‘evil’ is. This shows that not everything is based off of psychology in order for humans to decide what ‘good’ and ‘evil’
is.
Supplementarily, with all these disagreements being pointed out, it proves that such nonsensical things like
psychology doesn’t affect how humans decide what is good and evil Therefore, when a human decides on good and
evil, it will be decided through psychological terms. Good and evil emphasis on a human’s own thinkings and feelings
; not on governments nor any great power. According to https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/Philos
ophers/Hobbes/hobbes_human_nature.html, Good and evil are dependent on what the individuals are fond of (what
s/he seeks) and loathe of ( what s/he avoids). Due to the goodness in human beings emerges when we, humans are
connected - we spread out into empathy with one another- we give credence to the fact that goodness expresses
something fundamental about human nature, even if it might be problematic to see. ‘Evil’ is an aberration , a form of
pathology, as the psychopathic personality shows, which emerges when humans are broken off into disconnected
fragments. Good and evil are just like two sides of the coin. If one exists then the other has to exist as well. Existence
of goodness and evilness makes us human or inhuman yet also allow us to live in the world of free will, where we can
and chooses off ourselves.
Bibliography
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concept-evil/
http://www.socraticmethod.net/socratic_essay_nature_of_human_evil.htm
https://www.iep.utm.edu/xunzi/
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mencius/
https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/Philosophers/Hobbes/hobbes_human_nature.html