Selfish Nature of Humans Essay

innate desire to have what isn’t his. Discontent is a hopeless side effect to human nature, and unfortunately all men deal with it hundreds of instances within a lifetime. What people don’t realize, though, is they are given what they have for a reason. The creator of the universe purposely places things, people, and circumstances in everyone’s life when it is appropriate. When men chase after their own desires, it often results in some sort of consequence. This, the effects of selfish human nature, can be observed in many characters in Oedipus the King and Hamlet. Claudius, a character in the play Hamlet, is the ultimate example of a greedy human being. Claudius was the runner up to being crowned king. His adored…

Perpetually Malicious Author Stephen Kendrick once stated in his book The Love Dare,“Almost every sinful action ever committed can be traced back to a selfish motive. It is a trait we hate in other people but justify in ourselves.” Almost every iniquity in the world has been caused by narcissism. Selfishness thrives in humans, feeding off of their evilness. People forget that evil exists within themselves as well, not just their peers. Evil is a very loose term, however the most clear denotation…

The State of Nature is a concept that has been discussed by social contract theorists for many years. Both John Locke and Thomas Hobbes completed competing versions in their writings, Two Treatises of Government and Leviathan. While each differs substantially, both theorists were looking to understand and justify human nature. It is my argument that Hobbes depiction of the state of nature is more accurate because it takes into account a human beings are, at their core, selfish creatures. This…

In the novel, The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, there is a great divide between that of nature and that of man. In the beginning, Billy, the protagonist, has a relationship with a wolf that he captured and by the end of the novel Billy seems to relate more to the wolf than any other human in the book. The end of the book leaves Billy alone weeping, as his entire family has been murdered in different events. Although the entire book focuses on the separation between humanity and nature, common…

Hobbes’ belief in the inherent selfishness of human begins who desire power can clearly be seen when Jack kills his first pig and the boys miss the chance of being rescued. In his most famous work, Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes articulates his view on the selfish nature of humans when he writes, “For such is the nature of man, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; Yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves: For they…

building even though they wouldn’t be hurt if they helped. Are they selfish? Survivors are often selfish, they only live to tell the tale unscathed because they abandoned people in need of their help. Survivors lack the consideration for others, caring for their wants of comfort more than others needs of survival. People say that self-preservation is human nature, but humans have evolved so that generosity has replaced that trait, so that is no reason to leave fellow men behind. Humanity is…

The conclusion that the Chinese philosopher Xunzi came to about human nature was that “human nature is bad.” (Cite) In other words, he believed that humans are inherently selfish, and must put effort into repressing their selfish nature to achieve any sense of 'goodness'. The evil in humans will lead to chaos and violence if left unchecked, and only by following external teaching and ritual can humanity be brought to order and civilization. (Cite) I disagree with this conclusion on the basis…

The concept of human nature, in a world in which humans claim to believe various theories, differs between different accounts by two intellectual men, Thomas Hobbes and Francis De Waal. According to Hobbes, he views every human being as equal because he believes that every individual, no matter the physical or mental difference, were born with the ability of killing or harming any other individual. According to De Waal, however, he believes the opposite of Hobbes idea of human nature because De…

ultimately wealth. When Judge Pyncheon thought Clifford to be the heir to his uncle’s land, he saw an opportunity to turn the family against Clifford thereby claiming the land as the best substitute heir. This was not a result of a curse but a deep and awful greed that consumes the mind and heart. Human nature and free will intermingle with this story consummately. They seem to be the most common theme. Humans, being designed to exercise freewill, often choose human nature over righteous…

order to maintain peace. For me, this idea that without regulation we would all act only out of self-interest, raises fundamental questions about what it means to be human; predominantly whether our nature is inherently selfish, and perhaps if we even have a fixed, immutable nature at all or if our actions and behaviour stem from how we are nurtured, causing them to be relative, depending on context. If we didn’t have governmental systems in place or at least aspects of societal structure,…