On a scale of 1 (good) to 10 (evil) how would you rank human nature?
 

So in one of my classes this semester, I'm supposed to ask people a random philosophical question every week. I was wondering if anyone would like to give their ideas.

On a scale of 1 (good) - 10 (evil) how would you rank human nature?

if dirty was a number i'd pick it....

people are dirty low down scoundrels. I am convinced of that.

I would say people, in general, are "8." Hard to tell because I have not met every person. But from my own personal experience, I know people lie, steal, cheat, hate, etc, and everyone does a good job of it.

On the other hand, I am not a good indicator of the goodness of humanity because of my hearing disability. People behave differently when they are around people with disabilities. Some for the good and others for the bad. I would rather people be themselves, but maybe I am seeing people for what they truly are. Hard to say. Know thyself.

I am curious. What is the name of your course? I majored in Philosophy in college.

For the most part, I believe the majority of people in this world are actually good, kind hearted people; however there are a number of very evil people who give the rest of us a bad name. The problem is a person being good rarely makes the news, whereas people committing crime makes for popular reading material.


On the other hand though, if you're referring to peoples' honesty and integrity, then I believe there are very few people you can count on to be truly faithful and not stab you in the back at one point or another.

On a side note, I do believe backpackers are some of the nicest people I have ever met.

For the most part I think people generally try to be good people, but that probably only accounts for 50% of there day. In todays world, at least here in the U.S...... it seems to be a dog eat dog world. Do what you have to do and don't look back.

I will agree that travelers, true travelers are good people and should be an inspiration to all the self-centered one minded corporate types that seem to own this country. Rant Rant Rant......

I know I always try to be to everyone the way I would want them to be to me. But I also know that there are times in life when the game face has to go on, in order to make things happen. Thats life, or the life I see.

id say theres more fucktards in this world then there are decent people.

4.5 honestly, but id like to believe its closer to 6 or 7.... theres so many beautiful minded people too, but with crime, greed, corruption etc... this is one topic i will sway negativly on

^jess, I think you got the scale reversed...but we get the picture...

I think that we are about a 6. There is a lot of beauty in human kind and in people, but there are also a lot of bad things. Normally, I think that we're pretty much 50/50. But on the state of the planet, I think that we tend to be an incredibly selfish species~ caring mostly about ourselves and crap like money, not bothering to stop and think about all of the beauty we are destroying. It's our greed and selfishness that I think tips the scale a bit.

4.

The problem is that the 9s and 10s of the world do more damage than 1s or 2s do good.

As a species, we are pretty caring :)

--Joey

I'm leaning towards the 5 - mostly because humans are too lazy and either good or evil really takes work to do it right. I don't think, as a whole, the human race is worried about much more than their own comfort...

I always look at it in this way.

If humans were truely, truely evil, then there would be a lot more jerk off things done. Like everyone cutting in front of everyone. Or going down the right lane while there's a huge line in the left lane, then cutting in front of everyone waiting when you get to the front.

And stuff like that.

But since stuff like that typically doesn't happen, humans have some sort of common courtesy.

If we were to make lying evil, we'd be a 20.

So, I'm going to have to say 5.

I was not happy yesterday. I change my mind. I give humanity a 5.

I give us about a 7. I have had far too many acts of kindness directed towards me to not think that people are good, but society really affects them for the worse but it's not their true nature.

Obviously humans are capable of both great good and great evil, and I was going to go with a six because it seems easy to claim that humans are doing a better job of destroying each other and the planet than doing any good to it. I think part of that impression is due to the great publicity of disaster that assaults our daily lives - the media has such a love affair with violence and tragedy.

On a day-to-day basis however, I find that I have sometimes almost irrational faith in the goodness of human nature.

I think maybe a lot of bad consequences of human action aren't really "evil" per se either...I think we could just be really good at being stupid and making mistakes or being misguided. Maybe.

I'd say 7-8. I think individually humans are good because I have had many acts of kindness-lots of them random but as a collection, I feel we suck. Sorry, that sounds cruel and judgmental but bear in mind I include myself in this too.

I would say 5. I think most people are inherently selfish and concerned primarily with getting themselves ahead. I also think most people are also sheep and are somewhat apathetic and lazy and tend to go along with the status quo as long as their own little world is not impacted too significantly. This is why leaders like Hitler, Idi Amin and other dictators can be so successful and even popular with an entire nation even though they commit hideous acts. As long as the majority feel like their lives are being improved or at least maintained, they often do not look too closely at the 'cost' of that improvement and do not want to rock the boat or ask too many questions.

I do not think you can really see someone's true nature until they are put into an extreme situation and only then can you see whether someone is truly decent deep down or not. Certainly there are many examples of heroic people committing acts of unspeakable kindness and bravery at the expense of their own safety and well-being. I just think that these people make up a small percentage of the population. Just as I think the truly evil people make up a small percentage of the population. The rest of the population tend towards the middle of the scale, easily steered in whatever direction society dictates.

I'd say 9 to 10. That may be a conservative estimate as I'm not really fired up about anything today.

I think 7, but please don't ask me to explain why, as philosophy makes my head hurt!

I'm a cynical bastard, so I'd say a 4. A person is smart, but people are stupid. The whole mob mentality thing comes into play.

For that matter, people generally don't understand how to properly treat others. Don't believe me? Look at the service industry. Last nite, I happened to walk out to the hostess stand to see how many covers we did in the dining room. Keep in mind, I'm in cooking attire- black chef coat, camo pants, apron, knife holster and do-rag. Some rich bitch comes out of the ladies room and looks at me and says the following in a very condescending tone:

"Didn't I already tell you there were no paper towels in the lady's room?"

"No ma'am, you sure as hell didn't, because I'm one of the cooks." All with a smile on my face, mind you. "But, there's a manager, I'm sure he can help you out. Talk to that guy."

She looked at me with a rather embarassed, yet bitchy glare.

She doesn't know me from the next guy, and my attire screams "chef" or "cook." Why does she choose to speak to me in such a way? Because people do not know how to treat others. Call me cynical, jaded, etc, but thats the way I see it. People don't know how to drive courteously, talk courteously, or in general behave in a courteous manner. Case in point: The table that calls in for a late reservation 5 minutes before closing. Doesn't matter that there are people there that want to go home since they've been working all day/night. They only have their self-interests at mind. People suck.

I'd love to give higher, but the biggest problem with human nature is ego and the undying belief that most people have is to look after number 1. So I'm going for 3.5

hahaha this thread makes me laugh...I love how very few people are able to read the req'ts in the scale...and how so many people seem to reverse it...