Mencius's Essay 'Good Or Evil?'
Human Nature: Good or Evil? After reading Mencius essay “Mans Nature is Good” and Hsun Tzu’s essay “Mans Nature is Evil” It made me realize that men are shaped by experience. People are born with a blank mind with a desire of some knowledge. Much of what we learn affects our behavior. Throughout our life, experiences have been shaping what we are. Both Mencius and Tzu believe the complete opposite, arguing that men are born with a nature of being good or evil. By reading these articles I’ve come to assume that people are born neither good nor evil; instead both of these are obtained through the filling of our mind with experiences and all this together has influenced what we become. Hsun Tzu’s theory about how human nature is inherently
…show more content…
Instead people learn this through experience as well. For example traumatic experience and experiencing poor family conditions can make a child into a delinquent. Mencius said that “If you plant the seeds carefully at the same time and in the same place, they’ll all sprout and grow ripe by summer solstice. If they don’t grow the same- it’s because of the inequities in richness of soil, amounts of rainfall, or the care given to them by farmers. And so, all members belonging to a given species of thing are the same” (97). In this metaphor Mencius is trying to say that if you are placed in a different habitat where you learn from the outsiders, you are grown by the influence of them, which in his opinion is evil. I found this to be true but also I want to add that it is not always evil, it can be for the good of somebodies development. Being with the family can be good however sometimes we experience inconsistent parenting or poor parenting where it affects our development. Sometimes people can’t avoid these kinds of experiences but others like being with friends and acting up to their level of immaturity can be avoided. It is up to the experiences you’ve had that will form into what you
Instead people learn this through experience as well. For example traumatic experience and experiencing poor family conditions can make a child into a delinquent. Mencius said that “If you plant the seeds carefully at the same time and in the same place, they’ll all sprout and grow ripe by summer solstice. If they don’t grow the same- it’s because of the inequities in richness of soil, amounts of rainfall, or the care given to them by farmers. And so, all members belonging to a given species of thing are the same” (97). In this metaphor Mencius is trying to say that if you are placed in a different habitat where you learn from the outsiders, you are grown by the influence of them, which in his opinion is evil. I found this to be true but also I want to add that it is not always evil, it can be for the good of somebodies development. Being with the family can be good however sometimes we experience inconsistent parenting or poor parenting where it affects our development. Sometimes people can’t avoid these kinds of experiences but others like being with friends and acting up to their level of immaturity can be avoided. It is up to the experiences you’ve had that will form into what you