INTEGRATED ENGLISH REFERENCE NOTES - Prof. Dr. Ziya Yurttaş

The Nature of Man
60
� The nature of man has been a subject of thoughts and discussions since the early
ages of mankind. People have come to ask themselves if the nature of man is
good or evil.
� The color of truth seems to be grey. In other words, the color of truth is neither
dark black nor snow white. It is grey, containing the elements of both. Similarly,
the nature of man carries the elements of both good and evil together.
� The inherent tendencies for good and evil are "normally" distributed among
people, just like other innate characteristics such as height and intelligence.
According to the normal distribution, 2% of the people are inherently very bad,
14% are bad, 68% are normal, 14% are good, and 2% are very good.
� Under the light of the “golden rule” The concept of “goodness” can be described
as an inherent tendency of a person to want for others what he or she would
want for himself.
� A man is as good as what he wants for others relative to what he wants for himself.
� Here are some examples of the golden rule statements:
17. Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as
your own loss. (Tei Shang.)
18. What is hateful to you; do not to your fellow man. That is the entire law and
the rest is commentary. (Shabbat, 31.)
19. No one of you is a true believer until he desires for his brother what he
desires for himself. (Sunnah).
� An average person would want for others about 50% of what he would want for
himself. Such a person would not mind giving a 50 unit harm to others for a 50
unit gain for himself.
� The tendency for good and evil is "normally" distributed among human beings.
Everybody inherits good and bad tendencies together. But the proportion of
these tendencies is different for everybody.
� Practically, no one is absolutely good or evil. Therefore, no one, including the
presidents and the prime ministers, should be given an absolute authority without
accountability. Nobody should be left accountable only to his or her own
conscience which he or she can convince without much difficulty.
� “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” is absolutely a correct statement. This
conclusion also applies to the soldiers of an occupying power in a war. In a
situation where arbitrary power is exercised, bad tendencies or evil instincts may
take over and a” normal” person may commit atrocities that may shock and
surprise many people.