Innate goodness
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Nature made man happy and good, but society depraves him and makes him miserable."--Dialogues: Rousseau, Judge of Jean-Jacques (1782) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau Let [youth] know that man is by nature good, let him feel it, let him judge his neighbour by himself; but let him see how men are depraved and perverted by society."--Emile, or On Education (1762) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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Innate goodness, essential goodness or inherent goodness refers to the trait of goodness humans supposedly possess in the state of nature. According to philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau (in Emile, or On Education for example), in prehistoric times, the world was inhabited by noble savages whose human nature was good, but who was corrupted by society.
In the popular imagination, children is naturally innocent. An opposing view is the existence of innate cruelty.
Views which see humans as inherently good
- According to John Locke, humans in the state of nature have perfect freedom to order their actions according to the laws of nature. Locke agreed with Thomas Hobbes, that people could do so without having to ask permission to act from any other person, because people are of equal value. People only leave the state of nature when they consent to take part in a community in order to protect their property rights.
- According to Pelagius, humans in the state of nature are not tainted by original sin, but are instead fully capable of choosing good or evil.
- According to social determinism and biological determinism, human behavior is determined by biological and social factors, so people are never truly to blame for actions generally considered "bad" nor truly credited with actions generally considered "good."
See also
- Absence of malice
- Good
- Human nature
- Innate
- Innate cruelty
- Noble savage
- Problem of evil
- Sade and Rousseau
- State of nature
