Are people innately good, or innately bad?
I think the answer to that question is that people are innately judgmental and feel the need to classify their own and others’ actions as good or bad. Good and bad are merely constructions of individuals’ thought. More concrete classifications of good and bad only arise when there is a general consensus of individuals in a society. In short, it is impossible to determine whether people are innately good or bad because good and bad are arbitrary, fluid, human constructs. Even if good and bad were constants, the variation in human behavior between individuals would make a generalization about the morality of the entire species impossible.
There is good and bad in all of us. It’s the choices we make in relation to how life comes at us that make us either “good” or “bad”. I believe in the gray area that falls in the middle of the spectrum that makes up a person’s character. The success in finding your spot on the spectrum is what rounds us out to be human – good and bad together.
