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Basically Pleasure Seeking

In the past few months I’ve heard some things that have got me to thinking once again about whether people are basically good or basically evil. I’ve decided that this one really needs to be played out outside of the box.
I think that good and evil is real, but I think that they are judgements on a behavior/incident not an inherent attribute — per sé.

Anyway, as my title suggests I think that people are basically pleasure seekers and pain avoiders from the get-go. “Good”ness is a decision that is unique to the individual in my opinion, and it is decided based on how a person goes about avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. If you get your pleasure from helping others, striving towards sleflessness, defering to other’s needs and desires, etc. then I’ll say that you’re a good person. Conversely, if your pleasure comes first — before anyone else’s — and if you will put as many of the costs of your pleasure on other people as you possibly can then I will probably think you are bad.
The reality of life isn’t based on what I think though, so people will judge people on how they go about maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. Some people may feel that the effort to do these things is enough to qualify a person as being “basically good.” They quickly infer that nearly everyone is basically good, because nearly everyone does this. Actually, this is the only other way that I care to represent right now, because I’m having a major brain-fart.
Y’all get what I’m saying though, right?
Cool.

Posted by David under Commentary, Observations |