Are Humans Inherently Good

In our world there are some evil people who will kill, cheat, and steal. But there are many more people who are seen as selfless and put others before themselves. So a question that has been going through many people's minds for centuries is whether humans are inherently good or bad. I believe humans are inherently good but can be twisted by their circumstances of life.
In an article that was written as a dialogue of Socrates called The Republic, Socrates claims that “No man would keep his hands off what was not his when he could safely take what he liked.” This was meant to show that if life had no consequences for your actions good people would probably take whatever they want. But the problem with this is that life does have consequences, and if you steal something not only will you get in trouble with the law but you will cause other people grief. Most people are aware of these consequences and take other people's feelings into account, so they don’t steal. …show more content…
This has been proven in multiple studies. Any evil motives come throughout their life from their circumstances of life. Someone who faces negative circumstances in their childhood like pain, abuse, neglect, and poverty are more likely to do more negative actions growing up. For example, many bullies have low self-esteem and have been bullied in the past, that's why they take their pain out on others. In the article Are We Naturally Good or Bad by Tom Stafford it says that “Ingenious experiments carried out by Yale University in the U.S. used these measures to look at babies minds. Their results suggest that even the youngest humans have a sense of right and wrong, and furthermore, an instinct to prefer good over evil.” this helps prove that humans are not born evil because babies who have very little influences from others choose good, selfless options like