Different Theories On The Source Of Evil example essay topic

What do you think about the nature of evil? Is it innate or learned? How do you come to your conclusions? What should society do about "evil"?

Do you believe in the rehabilitation of criminals? depends. If Do you believe in the power of education to shape the values of every individual? There are two theories which define evil: the first from the religious standpoint (in this case Christianism) and the other is from Jean Jacques Rousseau. The Christian belief says that evil occurs (death, disease and sin) because these are caused by the wrong doings of men. Since God has given the ability to choose to man therefore he is faced with two paths in life and he must pick out one of them and therefore he elects whether to do good or bad. Yet let us not forget the theory of Jean Jacques Rousseau which states that man is born evil but society tames it.

If this train of thought must be followed then one may conclude that evil is therefore only the selfishness or even the animal instinct of man as he leaves the principles given by society aside to do as he pleases. The nature of evil can be debated as we each have a rating for what is evil as instinct guides us to discriminate what is good from what is bad. When defining evil, we must also keep in mind that what is good according to us is defined by social standards. After learning all of this about evil and what is considered right or wrong whether by society as a whole or not, I realized that evil to us was simply this gut feeling of wrong doing. When we were brought up, we were told that some things were bad such as "Don't hit your sister!" and some things were good "Good girl!" . Evil or sin is known as the opposite of what is right and therefore it is not accepted by society.

For example: I have been brought up to believe that stealing is very bad but to some people this might not seem so obvious as they do not harm anyone physically and are not there to realize the impact they might have psychologically on the robbed person. Because of this, he might start becoming more careful and therefore live in the anguish that it might happen again. Your trust therefore diminishes in other people. Stealing therefore in my opinion is evil but not everyone shares this opinion.

I believe that the source of evil is both innate and acquired or learned by some sort of events (bad treatment, absence of concern from the parents... ) which perturbed a kid mind into changing from sane to cruel. Since some of the sources are not triggered by anything but is already present at birth then there must be no treatment for this. The only innate sort of evil is when the person has a mental sickness such as a psychopath: they do not feel bad about their actions as they cannot see the difference between what is good from what is bad. These are the dangerous people who go out and take pleasure and maybe pride in killing or torturing people. There is no treatment possible for people whom are born naturally evil. What to do with these people?

Lock them up until they die. They won't do anything with their life but they can't harm anyone in that way because once someone is born with a perverse mind then it is certain that they would be willing to do it again as they have done it before. These are the people who cannot be rehabilitated. Depending on the events which took place and if the criminal acknowledges his actions and if they were done on purpose, all of these have to be taken in perspective when discussing the rehabilitation of criminals. Other sources of evil could be when one is under the effect of alcohol or drugs. Under the influence of a substance, people lose control of their actions and therefore let their instincts guide them into doing whatever they please.

Some people take substances because they are shy and therefore want to "fit in" with the crowd, this allows them to be more comfortable in doing things they would not normally do; this may result in tragic happenings such as rape. These are curable wrong doers and therefore with time we would not have to completely exclude them from society. The last source of evil develops because of trauma. If a child was mistreated or sexually abused physically then he has chances of doing this himself and inflicting the same traumas to others. If a child everyday hears his mother telling him "Your a loser, your a loser... ' then gradually and surely he will say this to someone or even more terrible he could say this everyday to his own child and make him believe it too. Whether verbal or physical harassment, when a child has been harmed, there is a possibility of retaliation.

I believe that education has the power to shape any individual whom is not mentally unstable. People can be made to blindly accept things (for ex. the brainwashing which the Nazis had) but if something prevents you to do so (some people cannot be hypnotized, some have deficits of attention) than you will not follow as others will what is to be done. If a man is born being mentally unstable and therefore takes pure pleasure in the pain of others, he cannot and will not understand the rule given to him at an early age to not kill the bird or pinch his sister. It is the same with other mental illnesses, we cannot give children affected with down's syndrome intelligence and therefore we cannot reason with psychopaths. If these sources of evil can be debated either way. It is said that people who's source of evil generated from a mental illness cannot be cured by psychotherapy but treatments do exist for the other sources; there is pharmacological help that can be given or group therapy, behavioral therapy.

Therefore, I do not believe that society can shape anyone whom is evil from the beginning but if the person has acquired this in the way he was brought up or treated then there might be a chance. Evil can be debated on and cannot be defined in a definite way. Something evil can be seen as perfectly normal to another group of people. Different theories on the source of evil have been made but none of them are for sure as there is no one hundred percent way of treating someone whom has been judged as evil by society.