i was pondering the age-old question, is man inherently evil?
Edit: Forgot my own rule, not to give opinions without evidence and arguments.
no.
First you might want to clear up what you mean by evil. Some philosphers will argue yes to your question, some no, and some will argue good and evil do not exist.
Define good and evil. I doubt your definitions will be the same as mine. But either way, then ask the question again.
from over here it looks like:
man is neither good nor evil. good and evil aren’t useful categories when describing the “nature of things”.
There is no definite good and evil, sorry…
Man IS innately geared towards self destruction, though. Often times, man proves himself to be self defeating. We are all self absorbed to some degree. We’re very focused on self help, but fail to see that helping others helps our self.
I don’t think man is good or bad, however, I deem the self as being the worst creation since sin it-self.
I don’t believe humanity is geared toward self-destruction at all. I believe humanity is geared toward selfishness which very often results in the destruction of others. Unfortunately, if everyone is doing it, that means the destruction of each other.
yeah i’m leaning more towards this point of view. the idea that human beings are geared towards self-destruction seems out of step with the innate tendencies towards survival exhibited by virtually every living creature on the planet.
what i mean by evil is savage, opposite of civilized, primitive. its a very interesting question. i believe that man is inherently evil, but good and civility must be enforced in man to keep evil at bay.
meng zi and xun zi debates.
Well, let 's go beyond good and evil
I think that humanity has both the potentiality for great harm and great good. There are multiple modalities of existence; nature does not fix destiny. Perhaps even this distinction between good and evil is one of the reasons we cause so much harm.
Of course, what is harmful and what is good is context dependent and subjective. But in the end I don’t think that we are inherently anything - we are what we make ourselves. 
Personally, I think that good cannot live with evil. If a world had no good. Then the world wouldn’t have a good. pounds forehead this deep-thinking stuff is hurting my brain. 
man is inherently cruel.
I used to agree with this. But lately I’ve caught another wind. Is it really possible to describe something, or to recognize something’s existance without recognizing it’s goodness or badness?
In other words, we only recognize things for a purpose, that is, that it be useful to us, or conversely, not useful to us. Without good and bad we would not experience existance.
Umm…I think I agree with Adam (?)
Man isn’t good or evil, it’s his actions that are, depending upon the action’s relative effect on the person calling the action good or bad.
Any thoughts?
Well, speaking merely in terms of your definitions, I think the answer to your question would be yes, man is inherently evil. “Civilized” is an idea found among the state philosophy in existence around the world. Before this state philosophy, there existed only tribal philosophies, which I suppose is the opposite to state, but I’m sure it is what you meant by primitive. You used words like savage, which has an underlying negative connotation, which is how I think you’re equivocating evil in the quote above. The first sentence is your definition, but in the second, either your argument is circular, or your definition of evil changed (i.e. you mean it to be the moral sense of evil). I say your argument could be circular because you define evil as “savage, opposite of civilized, primitive”, so then of course good and civility will keep evil at bay because by your own definition they are opposite.
Just trying to clear up a few things so that this discussion can take on some substance. Some replies have assumed you meant the moral sense of evil. And then further assumptions and assertations of objective or subjective morality without reasons…all of which warrant their own entire forum with their potential for discussion!
This depends highly upon who you ask…
Ask me, and I’ll give you the Biblical answer: “Yes, all men are inherently inclined towards all evil.”
Yes, Humankind is,on the most part, evil.
Selfishness and devastation are the true basic need of humans. Those who are un-selfish once in a while are still basically selfish. As for devastation, just look at how many animals and plants are going extinct at an increased rate, or look at those who live poorly because of others.
Humanity is even destroying itself.
The few who are not evil are, well, nothing in comparison to the whole of humankind.