Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Man's Nature is Evil

Hsun Tzu wrote a contrasting article to Mencius, entitled Man's Nature is Evil. Although Mencius had some great points and ideas on humans and Confucianism, Hsun did too. Both of these philosophers have credible topics and ideas about human nature. Hsun Tzu believed that there is no way that human nature is inherently good. He believed tht our nature is evil and in order to have some type of discipline we must be ruled by strict law and harsh penalty for disobedience. His main idea and theory is that goodness is only the result of concious activity. Throughout his wrting, he also gives good examples, analogies and other writing tools to emphasize his idea that man's nature is evil. He believes that there is a difference between nature and concious activity. It seems that he says people are only good when they are concious, disciplined and actually thinking. In his eye's our nature is evil, and there is a difference between it and the good. A quote that drew my attention was when he said, "Man's nature is evil; goodness is the result of concious activity" (100). I feel like both of these philosophers can be combined after reading this statement. Mancius says that if we practice good it will become permanent. Something being practiced is concious activity. With this being said I think man's nature is both good and evil. Another quote that interested ma and made me believe that man's nature is half and half is when he said, "Similarly, since man's nature is evil, it must wait for the instructions of a teacher before it become upright, and for the guidance of ritual principles before it become orderly" (101). I do agree that humans need rule. This made me think that this is why God made the ten commandments to keep his people in order. I think that there is a combination of both in human nature.

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