Politics Evil

K

Kara

eternally nostalgic
I have to write an essay on this topic and i am totally stuck. i thought i'd post it here and try and get some ideas for my essay and it could be interesting to see your views.
 
Here's just a thought: Psychologists say that we are about half and half nature vs nurture (environment)...leaning a little more toward what we are born with (nature). BUT, even if a child was born with say an "evil" tendency their environment could very well cancel out that tendency. Just like if a child was born "good" their environment could cause them to go sour. I think there is no way to separate one from the other (and, although it is riding the fence, that is what I would write about).
 
Ahhh...the good old nature vs. nature topic...it's all a sort of opinion thing...and it is split as Jeanie said...
 
all men (humans) are inherintly good.

evil is something that is "learned"
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If that is the case, how do explain the likes of Stalin and Hitler?

I did psychology through high school and university, and almost everybody has come to the conclusion that it's a bit of both.

All too often serial killers and psychopaths come from grounded, happy, middle class families. In those cases there is absolutely no evidence that evil behaviours were learned.
 
Natalia said:
If that is the case, how do explain the likes of Stalin and Hitler?

I did psychology through high school and university, and almost everybody has come to the conclusion that it's a bit of both.

All too often serial killers and psychopaths come from grounded, happy, middle class families. In those cases there is absolutely no evidence that evil behaviours were learned.
[post="1012381"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​
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Just to argue the otherside (and really, I agree with you at some level), just because their home was happy--doesn't mean that they were happy. Family is just part (granted a HUGE part) of our up bringing. Plus then you have to look that the fact that some type of psychological disorder might be acting, in that case, would you consider them evil or ill?
 
ooh interesting topic Kara - as has already been said this will probably come down to a simple essay on nature v nurture - the age old psychology topic of choice ^_^ but evil is a strange topic to choose for it - for a teacher that is :P

one thing I would say to this - we had a case in the UK a few years ago where too young children killed a 2 year old child by tying him to a train line - now they were young kids (less than teenagers) so the question would have to be - how could kids so young have "learnt" to be so evil??? I would think there had to be some "evil" bone in them to do such a horrid thing. and the worrying thing is - they have been realesed from jail now and given new identities as men - something I am not qquite sure i agree with - i mean kids should have a chan ce - but until we know if evil is nature or nurture how can we set potential killers free???? :thinking:
 
I really think that your surroundings and the people you talk to and who influence you are huge factors for your behavior!
Especially in your puberty, when you form yourself and built your character!
But I also thing that pure evilness is caused at least a bit by your genes!
It´s a split and controversial issue!
I don´t know how it is in the US, but here in Germany the psychological state-of-mind is a big factor in the sentence by legal process!
And it´s a big issue with many pros and cons!

Muse
 
QUOTE(Natalia @ Sep 29 2004, 02:23 AM)
If that is the case, how do explain the likes of Stalin and Hitler?

I did psychology through high school and university, and almost everybody has come to the conclusion that it's a bit of both.

All too often serial killers and psychopaths come from grounded, happy, middle class families. In those cases there is absolutely no evidence that evil behaviours were learned.
Click to expand...


Just to argue the otherside (and really, I agree with you at some level), just because their home was happy--doesn't mean that they were happy. Family is just part (granted a HUGE part) of our up bringing. Plus then you have to look that the fact that some type of psychological disorder might be acting, in that case, would you consider them evil or ill?
Click to expand...
Aren't you arguing the same side there? A psychological disorder isn't learned.

What I was saying about the family was that somebody brought up in a stable environment hasn't learnt to be evil. There have to be other factors at work. And I think it is a bit of both.

I certainly think Stalin (who killed millions more Ukrainians than Hitler did Jews) and Hitler were evil. It is sickening that people like lawyers try to get murderers off by saying they couldn't help what they did. Often, that simply isn't the case.

And in the case of Stalin - who orchestrated a famine that killed between 7 and 10 million Ukrainians, and then went on to kill more in his camps - that is cold, calculated, and evil.
 
On a sidenote, some psychological conditions are learned.

Psychology doesn't have just one way of thinking. Different schools of psych think different things about whether evil is innate or learned (just as they have different opinions about the nature-nurture debate).

Freud and psychoanalysis is the first thing that pops into my mind (we're studying him in theories of personality right now. Ugh. I hate Freud). From a Freudian standpoint, evil comes from aggression, and aggression comes from the id. The id is innate in everyone. How much the aggression shows depends on what the individual learned (mostly in the first 5 years of life).

Humanists would say that evil is learned, for humans are innately good. Locke was a humanist.

Personally, I think that some individuals have more of a tendency to be evil, but ultimately, this tendency can be curbed by proper learning... and at the same time, evil can be learned. Everyone is susceptible to evil. In fact, I don't think a person can be truly good unless they have been tempted by evil and been able to turn away from it.
 
Actually funny this should come up. I was just reading a book of St. augustines (Confessions) it was about his life and how sinned all of it so basically it is a book about all of his sins he's confessing. He brought up some interesting points. He starts out at his birth. funny right? i just figured they couldn't talk so how could they sin. But he brings up this point. When you're and baby and can't talk or anything convey ur thoughts to those around you and if u don't get what you want you start screaming to get ur way. If u watch babies u'll see this. they see that if they scream long enough they'll get their way. so yes i th ink ur born evil. and even when u can start to talk and ur still young you are evil. Babies have tendacies to throw hissy fits when they don't get their way. Say another kid took away their toy. Or they don't get a new toy at the store. And what about lying. lil kids do that all the time. You don't jsut sit ur kid down one day and say. I'm gonna teach u how to lie. they already know how to lie cuz they were born in sin. so yeah you can't just learn evil. it's already in you.
 
are u mocking me?
cuz that's not very nice. see i put my view out there ina totally non-pushy way and then i get all haughty ppl tlakin to me just cuz their mad that someone said that they are bad they weren't born good. it's crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!deal with it. don't get mad at me about it. it's what i believe and what i've found otu for myself. u can do the same or not. it's ur choice.
 
I think the surprise is not if humans are evil, it's if humans are actually good. I'd say we are a mixture of both, but depending on certain circumstances and our surrounding environment, one side takes over more than the other, especially when it ties to self-preservation.
 
So, nature vs. nurture, huh? Neither one can be wholly responsible for all the evil in the world. I mean there are people who had perfectly normal childhoods who turn out to be serial killers, while some people who are abused manage to grow up normally. I think that some people are born with a tendency or ability to be evil and then depending on the circumstances of their life, this tendency is diminished or enhanced.
 

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