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> people are _generally_ good People came up with the idea of good, being good is essentially acting in consensus with society therefore it is unsurprising tha

> people are _generally_ good People came up with the idea of good, being good is essentially acting in consensus with society therefore it is unsurprising that most people are good.

orev 4y ago
I disagree. “Goodness”, which I think is more accurately “fairness” is an emergent behavior of social species. The idea of helping others who need it, wanting to be treated (roughly) equally by peers, and avoidance of doing things that hurts others (at least within a tribe) are all things that can be seen in more than just humans. Maybe the idea of “goodness” is a layer on top of that, created by consciousness, but it’s not a completely invented thing by society just to make people conform.
- hoseja 4y ago
  It's just a mechanism to enable more efficient, larger scale cooperation to kill the folks next valley over who have the less efficient version.
over_bridge 4y ago
I think that people are generally neutral rather than good. Most of us conform to social norms and do what is expected of us and no more. It's a pretty severe lowering of the bar to consider that good in my opinion. We are neutral and generally motivated by harmless self interest for ourselves and families. There are people who are genuinely good and almost without fail, they are people who have devoted their lives to helping others. Often they fly under the radar and aren't very well off. They don't make the news but you know one when you meet them and they have a huge impact on those around them. There are also bad people, if you'll forgive the Marvel level depth of that proclamation. There are people who make the world worse, usually for their own benefit or entertainment. Generally I think 95+% of people are neutral - just minding their own business. Is that virtuous, or just the minimum?
- human_person 4y ago
  I lean towards thinking 15% of people are good 15% are bad and 70% are distributed somewhere in between but mostly follow the herd/social conventions.

> people are _generally_ good People came up with the idea of good, being good is essentially acting in consensus with society therefore it is unsurprising that most people are good.

orev 4y ago

I disagree. “Goodness”, which I think is more accurately “fairness” is an emergent behavior of social species. The idea of helping others who need it, wanting to be treated (roughly) equally by peers, and avoidance of doing things that hurts others (at least within a tribe) are all things that can be seen in more than just humans. Maybe the idea of “goodness” is a layer on top of that, created by consciousness, but it’s not a completely invented thing by society just to make people conform.

hoseja 4y ago
It's just a mechanism to enable more efficient, larger scale cooperation to kill the folks next valley over who have the less efficient version.

over_bridge 4y ago

I think that people are generally neutral rather than good. Most of us conform to social norms and do what is expected of us and no more. It's a pretty severe lowering of the bar to consider that good in my opinion. We are neutral and generally motivated by harmless self interest for ourselves and families. There are people who are genuinely good and almost without fail, they are people who have devoted their lives to helping others. Often they fly under the radar and aren't very well off. They don't make the news but you know one when you meet them and they have a huge impact on those around them. There are also bad people, if you'll forgive the Marvel level depth of that proclamation. There are people who make the world worse, usually for their own benefit or entertainment. Generally I think 95+% of people are neutral - just minding their own business. Is that virtuous, or just the minimum?

human_person 4y ago
I lean towards thinking 15% of people are good 15% are bad and 70% are distributed somewhere in between but mostly follow the herd/social conventions.