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Are people fundamentally good or not?

Problem with evil and good is you cannot have any absolute determinant of either. If there was any rule of philosophy that once and for all made universally clear what good and evil actually are, philosophy would be a useless subject (even more so than it is now, because if we knew what good and evil were, we would simply be taught that once and for all and any philosophy classes would be obsolete). Philosophy is only interesting because all of it is semi-true without actually meaning anything concretely because situations are too complex to approach so onedimensionally.
 
Maybe, but is there ever a reason to kill someone? Things are evil in this world, and I don't pretend to know what they are, because the only comparisons I have are the human races comparisons, and how do they know they're right. To know what good and evil are, there has to be a god, which I don't believe exists, so how do they exist? They are but vague concepts, drawn up by our insignificant minds, which, when you think about it, aren't very insignificant at all, for if they can at least pretend to know what good and evil are, can they not at least set standards for themselves?
 
humans start wars. we fight and kill each other. we never learn from our mistakes. we hate. we are prejudised and proud.
have you seen any 'primative' (oh my I hate that word.) animals acing as stupidly as that?

don't I sound smart!! what I just posted is something to ponder.
so ponder away!!1
 
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You say it all like mankind is the only sort of animal that fights and kills.

What do you think predators do? Drink tea?
 
Well, at least animals don't judge whether you're friend, foe or prey with a single glance. That's more than can be said about us prejudiced humans!
 
I take in what you have said and I say this, at least preditors kill for food. not because something looks different or beleves something different. no animal, predirtor of no, has started a racil war or a religos war. they only fight for food. (excluding cats; cats fight because they can.)
 
Re: er what

I take in what you have said and I say this, at least preditors kill for food. not because something looks different or beleves something different. no animal, predirtor of no, has started a racil war or a religos war. they only fight for food. (excluding cats; cats fight because they can.)
1) please do everyone a favour and get yourself some spellcheck
2) er, what? Cats (and most predators) fight for a number of reasons that can have little to do with food; it can be for mating rights, territory or nesting places. They even play-fight much like we do, often to practice for when they actually need these skills. Sometimes animals just don't get along with each other the same way humans do as they do have personalities, although somewhat less complex than our own. There's also been documented cases where animals have been ostracised for being different somehow, like if they're albinistic or have a slight genetic mutation.
Animals aren't brainless little happy drones - they're conscious, thinking beings, just not as a high level as ourselves.
researchfail?
humans start wars. we fight and kill each other. we never learn from our mistakes. we hate. we are prejudised and proud.
have you seen any 'primative' (oh my I hate that word.) animals acing as stupidly as that?

don't I sound smart!! what I just posted is something to ponder.
so ponder away!!1
Animals can and do kill each other (crocodiles are a good example, as they will kill each other over territory iirc and male red kangaroos will quite happily kill domestic dogs), albeit not to such a destructive level as humans do. And, actually, humans can and do learn from mistakes, at least at a very simple level (try searching 'conditioning' in wikipedia for a quick, lazy example). In fact, if humans never learned from their mistakes, they wouldn't exist, because they probably would not have learnt that putting your hands in the fire is a bad idea. What you're referring to is that humans often ignore consequences and do what they like anyway, often to get something that they want, which is something different altogether.

And no, you don't 'sound smart' - you haven't addressed the question or explored what good and evil are. There are thousands of human beings who have not taken part in wars and are firmly against it - but because it is 'in the nature of humans' to do so, as you have compared them to animals, does that mean all humans are fundamentally bad?
What about animals that attack humans? As I stated about dogs, male red kangaroos can and do kill people (albeit rarely), as do cassowaries, crocodiles, sharks, elephants, bears and all of the big cats - and not always because the human has done something wrong! Does that make these animals evil, and is it evil of the human to defend themselves against said animal?

Since you have only defined evil as 'war and prejudice', what about those who steal, rape and own slaves? Are these people still evil, and for what reasons? You can't just say 'of course they're evil', because you have to realise that good and evil are subjective things (as what's been previously stated in this debate already).
You also haven't added anything new to this debate - reading the thread is a great way to prevent this!
Please don't just walk into a debate without reading the thread. You've brought up a whole ton of things that have already been talked about and it's incredibly frustrating. Move on beyond the 'humans create war so they are bad' copout and do some creative thinking!
 
Acts are evil, not people.

yeah the question is kind of odd because the qualities of "good" and "bad" are human-invented concepts that vary with culture, so all societies have different definitions of them.
All societies share certain fundamental moral precepts. Just as colours can be perceived by anyone with proper vision, anyone who isn't mentally ill can intuit that causing pain is wrong. We didn't invent that value. It's biological, inherent, universal.

Non-universal "moral values" (such as homophobia) are, IMO, not moral values at all. They're piggybacking on the popularity of genuine ethics.

If the major world cultures ended up glorifying rape ..., we would think of rape as 'good'
Mm. It's true that our inborn, objective sense of morality can be overcome by othering, dehumanization, disgust, etc. It might be helpful to imagine morality as one of many magnetic forces, affecting but not necessarily determining our behaviour.

are animals that kill others [committing] evil?
No, but only because animals probably can't understand the consequences of their actions.

We "inveted" time to measure a nonexistent force.
ಠ_ಠ
 
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