First, the perfectibility assumes that “humans are born in sin but are capable of achieving goodness through effort and control”. I personally don’t think that babies are part of the sin. Babies are innocent at the time they are born. They are little Angels, which are just starting their difficult path through life and only after starting that path they start to commit sins.
Second, the rationality premise assumes that “most people are capable of discovering the truth through logical analysis”. Every person has his own beliefs and values and through life he makes his/her own discoveries and make own decisions.
Third, the mutability premise assumes that “human behavior is shaped by environmental factors and that the way to improve humans is to improve their physical and psychological circumstances”. As human been we learn to accommodate our self with the environment that we live into. We learn to fit in.
Totally agree babies are not part of the sin. They can be with sin because they haven’t make anything being conscious they are just starting to meet world they even don’t know what is a sin or what is good or bad. Every person has his own beliefs and values as you mentioned so there would be very hard to have a universal truth considered to every individual in the world. The truth that I can conclude through logical analysis could be false for other people, besides none in this world know the absolute true. Humans’ behavior is shaped by their environmental factors I can honestly say that I agree with this premise.
ReplyDeleteI like what you had to say about all three premises. I don't think i agree completely with the mutability premise that human behavior is shaped by environmental factors. There are good people that come out of really bad living situations, and really bad people that come out of the best of circumstances. Human will has a lot to do with how we turn out. Like you said, we make our own decisions.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure the "being born into sin" idea is that if someone is just left to be raised feral, without guidance of a society of some sort, they would not necessarily live a moral life and may not understand right from wrong. Maybe it is just me but some of the cruelest things that people have done to me happened in grade school. Children can be practically sociopaths when it comes to how they treat others.
ReplyDeleteI'm also kinda dubious about people's ability to apply logic, I think everyone's definition of logic differs, logic is highly prone to fallacies, and a lot of people are just downright uninformed and not equipped to make decisions that affect a lot of other people.