Human Nature Is Inherently Good

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Goodness: Is it something that we strive towards because of our innate human intuition, the compelling pressures of society, or the high expectations of religion? Whatever the reason may be, most feel the need to please just like a child feels inclined to answer “yes” when his or her parent asks if they are being a good boy or girl. So, if human nature is inherently good, what defines this goodness, and why do people make poor decisions against their better judgement? Two philosophers, Aquinas and Augustine, seek to answer these questions in their respective books Summa Theologica and Confessions and tend to agree with one another with each of their answers. Nevertheless while most of their statements seem correct, this paper will address …show more content…

Therefore, someone’s goodness does not need to be complete for their life to be complete or total. Nevertheless, both philosophers should explicitly state whether or not their definitions relate to people, concepts, or both because while this accurately describes people and objects, concepts are much more complicated. For instance, murder is an evil that exists in this world but should not according to Augustine and Aquinas. It could be argued that God indirectly created it by creating humans, so it could be related to goodness in some far-fetched way. Therefore to account for this incongruity, both should have explained that things must have been directly produced by God to always be considered good in some way or should have emphasized that this explanation only relates to people and …show more content…

However, some act regardless of what they perceive to be good, thus ignoring the fundamental laws of humanity. Of course, Aquinas realizes that people sin because of errors in intelligence and because of uncontrollable emotions, but he also claims that people’s actions still reflect what what they believe to be good, whether it actually be right or wrong. Aquinas should have directly addressed this discontinuity between people because some know that their actions are wrong. In response to this, Aquinas could have said that they act sinfully for the good of themselves, which would comply with his previous explanation. Still, some act against all forms of good, even against the intentions of good for themselves. For example in the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Connor, the antagonist, the Misfit, murders innocent people because he thinks there is no point to life, even though he knows his actions are not necessarily good, even in his own

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