/n/ - NEET

People are generally how their envronment shapes them, there are some genetic factors like some poeple are more prone to agressive behavior while others may be more social by nature and more inclined to be involved with other people.

I think most people are influenced by the implied principles of society. They will usually do what they have to gain somethign trough social status.

Some people tough are likely not to fit in well and will adopt different principles.

The defualt behavior would be for people to use society for their own gain and out of fear from losing their positions will do nearly anything to keep it.
Tough others will likely trough some event, usually a negative one, realise their own insignificance and may realize that the only effective way to live is building up their community.
On the other hand some people will realize the insignificance of society and its memebers and will exploit it shamelessly given an oppertunity.
Usually those will succeed and this will motivate them to further villany.

I dont think good and evil are good criteria per se.
Evil is in a way a result of lack of good as means to gain good without having to go trough all the work.
While what we precieve as good are mearly associations of stimuli to motivate us to try retain our current state for as long as possible.
Im not sure if all people can feel guilt, but im sure sooner or later most do when they do somehting bad.

People are generally annoying.

People age generally good, because they do what they think is right, but the definition of right and good is very varied, distorted and corrupted quite often. There are people who are genuinely evil, but that occurs after a lot of outside shaping and twisting and hurt. Wether people feel remorse or not depends on their moral system and if they think what they did was justified or not.

>>11209
Hear, hear! What an incredibly succint post. In our own minds we are the good guys, usually.

Good and evil are concepts which are entirely relative to a given culture. "Evil" can only really be described as the act of going against the wishes of your society. There have been cultures where murder was perfectly acceptable, for example.

If you alternatively define "good" as doing what you believe is right, and "evil" as doing what you believe is wrong, this gets very complicated. I don't think people are inherently good or evil. Everyone is shaped by their experiences and circumstances, though I won't deny that some people have self-serving or anti-societal tendencies. Genetics actually comes into play in this respect. For example, there is a known gene that makes you more likely to fight than to flight, and there is a known gene that makes it easier for you to rationalize killing someone. Of course, your genetic instincts can be suppressed with some effort, but the cards are stacked against people who have traits which society considers undesirable.

In the end, from the view of society, "good" is being a perfect cookie cutter citizen, and "evil" is questioning or disobeying the "rules". In other words it's all total bullshit.

The concept of good and evil, as well as who is good and who is evil, greatly depends on the person's point of view.

The environment they grew up in also has a very definitive impact on their views as well, though there are some cases where the child ends up doing the complete opposite despite the conditions.

You can have a room full of people being asked the same question, and their answers will always be different. But in my opinion, I feel there is really no good nor evil extremes, just how we see and judge people based on their actions that has given an effect on the people around them. Sometimes those people think they're trying to do good for others, and they could be! But at the same time it's hurting others, too, and may or may not realize it.

Sometimes evil doesn't have to be a bad thing either, in fact, I feel we are all born evil in a way, we just display it in many different ways and whether or not if the other thinks if our actions are such. It's "good" to some who think you're doing the right thing, and "bad" to others that say you're not.

TL;DR good and evil is a complicated sort of thing.

Hmmm everyone seems to agree that good and evil are basically relative but what about intentions?

I believe that actions being good or evil is more based on the intentions then on the actual actions. Even if evil is a relative term if someone's intentions truly were evil (and not just resulting in evil consequences but the core of their intention itself was evil) would that not be evil?

Most if not all people are selfish as in they only want the better for themselves while usually not caring about how that would affect other people. I wouldn't say people are evil. Different shades of grey maybe but not evil

Self-serving

Not really.

Nope, some people either don't care or feel proud about it

>Do you believe people are generally good or evil?
I try not to apply this sort of binary to real human beings.
>Do you believe people are born good but just corrupted or born as self-serving creatures that are forced by society to be slightly less selfish?
I believe people are mostly blank slates, and their culture shapes them pretty strongly.
>Do you think there are just some people who are inherently good or bad and not a thing in the world can change that?
Maybe psychopaths/sociopaths.
>Do you think everyone feels guilt and remorse over the bad things they do?
My definition of bad? Theirs? Maybe, maybe not, either way.

>Do you believe people are generally good or evil?
yes
>Do you believe people are born good but just corrupted or born as self-serving creatures that are forced by society to be slightly less selfish?
both exist
>Do you think there are just some people who are inherently good or bad and not a thing in the world can change that?
i believe some people are born more 'good' than others, or more evil than others, and that for some people it is too late for them to change.
>Do you think everyone feels guilt and remorse over the bad things they do?
no

tldr i have a very strict sense of what i think good and evil is, read to find out more.

i was treated badly a lot of my life, but i sacrificed my own benefit to find a way out that didn't make me as bad as them. i have my own definition of good and evil, and while i can make exceptions, it is pretty much needless destructiveness and harmfulness generally winds up being evil. if evil gets to a certain point i absolutely think it must be destroyed. this is because i believe going about things in a destructive manner is what someone who is deranged beyond repair would do, at least if you cant get them to stop. the real evils are the ones who no good could be made from reforming them and it wouldn't be worth the destruction they would cause if they were to be kept a live. wasteful actions are a pet peeve, but you are literally the scum of the earth if you are not worth saving.

>Do you believe people are generally good or evil?
I think that, generally, people fall between these two points, though more aligned toward good overall due to our instincts against killing one another and other such things.

>Do you believe people are born good but just corrupted or born as self-serving creatures that are forced by society to be slightly less selfish?
Typically, a person wants to do the right things, which usually correspond with actions considered to be good. It is often the case, however, that an individual can be mislead, misguided, exposed to harmful influences, or otherwise muddled in their thinking such that their idea of the right thing no longer matches with goodness, thus making them act in an evil fashion despite their desire to do otherwise.

>Do you think there are just some people who are inherently good or bad and not a thing in the world can change that?
I don't care for the idea of people "inherently" having some ultimately-subjective trait, but I undeniably know many stubborn people, and these people cannot be averted from their current behavior patterns unless they choose to change themselves. Therefore, you could say that, based upon if you perceive them as acting goodly or acting evilly, these people fall under that category, though perhaps not in the sense you intended.

>Do you think everyone feels guilt and remorse over the bad things they do?
No, as there are people who are incapable of those feelings. Regarding those that can, I suspect the majority of them do, excepting those that are doing bad things who are unaware of the toxicity of their actions; since they believe they are acting properly, what reason do they have to feel remorseful?

>[I]f someone's intentions truly were evil (and not just resulting in evil consequences but the core of their intention itself was evil) would that not be evil? (taken from >>11218)
I'd say yes. If you bear malicious intent, and you take action upon that in the hopes of producing some outcome reflecting that malice, then that could be called evil.


To be honest, I don't much buy into the notion of an absolute good and an absolute evil. In the end, good and evil vary from person to person. There are things that most consider good (e.g. donating or doing charity work) and things that most consider evil (e.g. murder), but by what standard can we call these things objectively good or evil? The Universe certainly doesn't care, and it provides us with no measurement for these affairs. You can bring religion into the mix, but that drags with it issues of unfalsifiability and differing interpretations. We lack incontrovertible definitions and thus default to what we are told – or, more rarely these days, what we think – is good and evil.

>Do you believe people are generally good or evil?
It depends on their circumstances. But people grow up to be good or bad depending on how they are raised and how life forms them. But people can generally fall under being "good" or "bad" as commonly perceived. Most will fall in between however.

>Do you believe people are born good but just corrupted or born as self-serving creatures that are forced by society to be slightly less selfish?
Same as above. Life makes people "good" or "bad" or mostly in between. Nobody is born good or bad.

>Do you think there are just some people who are inherently good or bad and not a thing in the world can change that?
No, but life can change how we treat people. So those who are "bad" can become "good" and vice versa. Anybody can be corrupted.

>Do you think everyone feels guilt and remorse over the bad things they do?
At some level I believe so. You'd have to be severely emotionally stunted to not feel remorse over say, ruining somebody's life.

I don't really know about anyone else, but I have lived a very sheltered life and I still can't say that I've ever had a deep love for anything or anyone.
How does that relate to the thread?
I end up having a very cynical viewpoint of other people's feelings since I can't relate in many ways. It makes me always think everyone is hiding something/

>Do you believe people are generally good or evil?
Not in the same way you expect, I think.
>Do you believe people are born good but just corrupted or born as self-serving creatures that are forced by society to be slightly less selfish?
If you define being evil as any selfish act, then no one is anything but evil.
>Do you think there are just some people who are inherently good or bad and not a thing in the world can change that?
No.
>Do you think everyone feels guilt and remorse over the bad things they do?
No, there are certain mental illnesses that cause lack of guilt.

I feel people are evil when they feel no guilt when they are given the information that something they are doing is harming someone else, especially if it's a small thing like "I want to make as many rape jokes as I like, even if someone who is dealing with PTSD from rape is asking me to stop, my convenience > other people's trauma". Evilness in my head is not merely selfishness or cruelty, it is specifically when someone can /easily/ avoid harming others, but /chooses/ not to.

All people are good.
Sometimes darkness fills our hearts and it manifests as things we can call evil.
But, if love is dominant, these forces are warded off and a person is able to blossom. We are all pretty flowers at our core, you know.

Neither
I think that people dance more around neutrality
Most people know that goodness is a more desirable outcome since it means more possibilities to survive, and they'll do good as far as it's not much of a hassle, but they will do wrong when they can get away with it without repercussions and has some gain
I'd generally say that people are more pragmatic than good or evil, they'll always do what they think have a more desirable outcome, it just happens that good is coincidentaly it

>>11320
This is a really stupid thing to say. Your argument sounds like an ethics and morality argument wherein people will naturally act for the better of other people and themselves. Its just plain stupid. Psychopaths exist and the reason they're like that is because they are unable to establish and identify proper morality. To say that ever person is good deep down inside is like saying everyone can be your friend, you'd get shanked right on the gut.

Then again, good and bad are entirely subjective to each community. Fuck I'm already talking about moral relativism.

I don't think most people are capable of knowing the difference between good and evil to be honest, or really understand the distinction. They understand how to follow laws and rules (and typically blindly accept law as moral absolute), but they can't really grasp fuzzy concepts like right and wrong innately.

I don't think anyone is inherently absolutely good or evil, it just really isn't possible for a human.

>>12299
>I don't think most people are capable of knowing the difference between good and evil to be honest
Don't be like that. I'm pretty sure most people will know that killing is bad. I think you'll agree with me when I say that even 10-year-olds will know that cannibalism is wrong.

Stuff like this is easy to spot, because it naturally tugs our human instincts and signals an alarm.

>>12301
>I'm pretty sure most people will know that killing is bad.

Well, it isn't always, is it? If you kill to protect, in self defence, or to slay a villain, or for vengeance, than it's a virtuous act.

The difference between good and evil doesn't really exist in the act but in the intentions behind that act. Right and wrong are really quite complicated, like most things in life, and I feel that most people try to simplify it by basing their moral guidelines on hard and fast laws and preconceived judgements rather than thinking about things.

Do you think everyone feels guilt and remorse over the bad things they do?

Most do I guess.
I have a hard time feeling any guilt or remorse regardless what I do.
There is no use to do bad things for the sake of it though.
It is actual benefical to be a "good" person by societies standards. (most of the time)

Cannibalism? Murder? Evil?

It's all situational. There are reasons behind every action, and hastily passing judgments is just.. bothersome.

I think most people are both a little bit good and evil at times. But vary rarely do you see someone truly good or bad.