Mencius believes that in is human nature to be pleased when others treat you well. He also believes that "[a]ll men have a mind which cannot bear to see the sufferings of others"(Book 2, Part 1, Ch. 6) implying that everyone is naturally compassionate and kind, good.
Xun Zi believes that "[h]uman nature is bad." He thinks that humans are given, by Heaven, a natural desire to be selfish, like eating when hungry or resting when tired and that good is learned through rituals of letting elders eat first or not resting because it is not time yet. He believes that humans are born bad and learn to be good.
Of these two men's theories on the nature of human beings, I "line up" with Xun Zi. I think that Xun Zi's thoughts on human nature being naturally bad is more correct. I think that people are selfish until they learn to be "good" though teachers or others examples.
So an interesting question to ask is why is being self-interested seen as "bad?" Is there something wrong with being concerned with your own well-being? It will be interesting to see if you are able to answer that question consistently throughout this course!
ReplyDelete