Selfishness Essay

Selfishness Essay Parker Graham

The human race, the most selfish creatures on the planet. Mankind, mammals who have to get more than others to feel better about themselves. The opinion that most people have about this subject is that most people greed filled and want more. Philosophers have interesting perspectives on this subject. Thomas Hobbes‘s opinion on if humans are selfish or selfless is that humans are very selfish. This is shown is one of his quotes as “The condition of a man is the condition of war and everyone against everyone.” This means that mankind is prone to war and violence no matter the case. One of the reasons why he may have this opinion might be from the cause of the amount of war and nations trying to take and steal from each other or just things on much smaller scale like neighbors stealing from each other’s homes. There are a lot of people who agree Thomas Hobbes one of them is another philosopher with the name of Mary Wollstonecraft or Montesquieu “No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.” This quote means exactly what is says that no man is born with evil but it is achieve their happiness evil is born. This is identical to Thomas Hobbes in the sense that they both have the same view on this subject and it resembles that everyone is out for their own happiness and couldn’t care about others. One person who opposes the first two philosophers is a philosopher by the name of John Locke. His view is that everyone is equal and selfless. His view on this subject or shown in his quotes. One of these quotes being “All mankind being all equal and independent no one ought to harm anyone in his life, health, and liberty.” One flaw is his quote is that people do harm each other. This is because human nature is to become happier than everyone else and to achieve that you need to potentially harm someone in that process of making yourself happy and a lot of people do that to get what they want such as nations and leaders who want to potentially rule everyone on the planet or it could be the simplest of things such as putting someone else down to make you feel better about yourself witch is seen in the halls of almost every school. There are a lot of flaws in John Locke’s quotes but that was one of the big ones. Finally in conclusion to these opinions mankind are very selfish beings but there are those who think otherwise. People have to get more than others to make them feel better about themselves. Most people are greed filled and want more. A lot of philosophers have interesting perspectives on this subject.