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My observation of the universe is subjective. Nowhere did I imply it wasn't What I did state is that there is a difference between the school of thought saying

My observation of the universe is subjective. Nowhere did I imply it wasn't What I did state is that there is a difference between the school of thought saying human nature is inherently good and the one saying humans are predisposed to evil. Because we can observe human nature and it does not seem oriented towards good. All people do evil things from time to time including myself. Some do evil that is disproportionate to the average though. I have considered if I'm just wrong. Have you considered if I may be right? Nowhere have you offered any argument against what I believe. You just asked pointed questions. I directly responded to a post literally asking me for what experiences I had that led me to my beliefs. I gave an accurate accountings focusing mainly on my subjective experience. And your response is not to disagree with my conclusions but to attack the fact that I just provided the very experiences demanded of me... If that were the best argument I could make against someone, I'd reconsider my own beliefs

edmundsauto 5y ago
My personal belief is that it's not meaningfully true or false to talk about human nature, as if we can simplify the complexity of contextual behavior into a single boolean variable. At various points, I have believed that human nature tends towards the bad. As I've gotten older, I realize that people sometimes behave in good ways in bad situations; they sometimes behave poorly in situations where it would be easy to do the right thing. The same person could do both, within a 10 minute span. Heck, I even believe that people's behaviors would change if the simulation could be rewound and replayed. Human interaction is so complex. If you expect me to behave poorly because you're in a bad mood right now, and I live down to your expectations, how should we interpret it? I don't believe it says anything generalizable about either of our natures - we could simply be having a series of bad days that makes it more difficult to act nobly. If one of your key beliefs so colors your view of your fellow humans, it's probably a very limiting belief. For me, I don't think there's much value or truth in predisposing myself to negativity by projecting it forward. Especially when there's no real benefit to doing so.

edmundsauto 5y ago

My personal belief is that it's not meaningfully true or false to talk about human nature, as if we can simplify the complexity of contextual behavior into a single boolean variable. At various points, I have believed that human nature tends towards the bad. As I've gotten older, I realize that people sometimes behave in good ways in bad situations; they sometimes behave poorly in situations where it would be easy to do the right thing. The same person could do both, within a 10 minute span. Heck, I even believe that people's behaviors would change if the simulation could be rewound and replayed. Human interaction is so complex. If you expect me to behave poorly because you're in a bad mood right now, and I live down to your expectations, how should we interpret it? I don't believe it says anything generalizable about either of our natures - we could simply be having a series of bad days that makes it more difficult to act nobly. If one of your key beliefs so colors your view of your fellow humans, it's probably a very limiting belief. For me, I don't think there's much value or truth in predisposing myself to negativity by projecting it forward. Especially when there's no real benefit to doing so.