I think the two readings were super interesting. In my high school history class, we talked a lot about whether humans were inherently evil or good. Then we looked at a bunch of different philosophers like Hobbes and Locke who had vastly different opinions. So, these readings reminded me a lot of past high school lessons. Mengzi had a more optimistic approach by saying humans are inherently good with the right upbringing, while Xunzi said humans were inherently bad. I think that humans are inherently good, but I don’t think any one person is completely good or bad. I think humans want to do good, with our conscious’s telling us to do good, but sometimes we aren’t able or want to carry it out. Humans have souls and hearts that I believe instinctively care for others whether we want to or not. I liked hearing the different sides, though. It made me question whether humans are inherently good or evil even more than I already sometimes do.