John Locke: Are Humans Born Good Or Evil?

John Locke’s ideas, who was a student at Oxford University, differentiated from the ideas of Hobbes in the way that Locke was not in favor of having a government, and did not see rebellion towards the government as an evil thing. John Locke also did not think that humans were born evil, he believed that humans were born good. “Locke did not see political unrest, or even revolution, as necessarily bad things, nor did he perceive human nature as inherently self-interested and aggressive” (Austin 100). The philosopher’s ideas helped start the Glorious Revolution in 1688. Although he shared the belief that people would give up some of their freedom in exchange for protection; Locke believed that the government were in a sense signing a contract …show more content…
This is important because if proven, it could potentially answer the question: Are humans born good or evil? “Their major conclusion is that genetic and familial elements play a significant role in predispositions to criminality. The relation of innate intelligence and crime is a central concern in Crime and Human Nature.” (“Crime and Human Nature," 1986) What the scientist believes according to his research is that genetics do in fact play a major role in the possibility of a certain individual to become a criminal. Wilson mentions that scientists in the past have completely ignored the fact that genetics has a part in human nature and behavior. The scientist argues that genetics, as well as types of parenting, genetics plays a larger role than the environment around the individual including his peers or the people he is involved with. Wilson also used twins in studying criminal behavior which provided him with an abundance of critical information to support his …show more content…
He believes that every person can have a different definition for human nature and that is fine. It is also believed that genetics do not take part in the behavior of a human being. His argument is that we have an abundant number of genes and therefore it is hard to predict human behavior. This is certainly contradicting to the findings of most scientists. “The other theme is that individual genes cannot specify much of the details of human behavior. Human beings are built from 60,000 or so genes, which simply is not enough to specify many of the synapses in the brain. For this reason, Ehrlich concludes that most of our behavior cannot be directly genetically controlled.” (“Human Natures,"