One of the concepts I have struggled the most with this semester is from the “Man’s Nature is Evil” reading. The author, Hsun Tzu, says that man’s nature is evil and that goodness can only be achieved with conscious activity. At first thought, this idea seems far-fetched. How can every person be predisposed to evil? However, this idea seems a lot more feasible in the context of the examples the author provides.
Hsun Tzu states that man must be guided by a teacher and guided by ritual principles to achieve goodness. In some ways, I think that this is true. I can imagine that when most people read this sentence, they view the “teacher” as a Confucius-like person in someone’s life, who guides them on the path to goodness. However, in the context of today’s society, we have many different kinds of teachers; parents, family, friends, teachers, etc. These people help cultivate our moral ideals and teach us the difference between right and wrong. I think what Hsun Tzu is getting that is that without these people, we would not understand what goodness truly means. While it’s tough to know if this notion is actually correct, I think Hsun Tzu’s views are easily rejected because they scare people. The thought that humans are inherently evil is not pleasant to think about, and speaks a lot to our character.