John Locke's view of human nature most closely aligns with the author's view that humans are neither inherently good nor evil at birth. The author believes that upbringing and environment shape whether a person develops good or evil habits, not some innate quality. For example, a person raised in a crime-ridden, low-income family would likely learn evil habits, while the same person adopted by royalty would develop good etiquette. Overall, the author argues that human nature is defined by capacity for reason and empathy, not an inborn moral orientation, so it is inaccurate to categorize all humans as universally good or evil.

1. Ideology Assignment – Anthony Meszaros
John Locke, the seventeenth century philosopher is the person I agree with most when I
think about human nature. I believe all animals without the ability to think about different
perceptions of things are neither good nor evil. I also believe every human being from
birth (provided they are born without any mental or physical issues that alter the natural
thinking process) are born essentially “good”, growing up in society makes them “evil”
depending on what they have, what they don’t have and what they want. For example, if
a person was raised within a low income family stealing from supermarkets and
purposely hurting each other around them, they would potentially pick up these evil
habits subconsciously and do as they know. However, if that same person was given up
for adoption, adopted by the queen of England, this person would develop good habits
such as proper etiquette and would never purposely harm others. Simply, I believe every
human being is different in the sense of how they act and what makes them good or evil.
There is no such thing as human beings born good or evil because like animals, we are
born with human nature instincts and follow them to a certain extent which personally I
cannot categorize good or evil. Think about when New Orleans or Haiti ended up in
natural destruction, the rest of the world didn’t have to, but they helped out to provide
rescue, food, clean water and other important necessities until they got back on their feet.
Human nature is to help other people (or animals) when they truly need it, we can
sympathise and make decisions based on emotion. We are nor good or evil in my
opinion.
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