Good nature that needs to be guarded carefully

"...although Confucius informs us that human nature is fundamentally uniform, he does not clarify whether this is a good nature that needs to be guarded carefully or a bad nature that stands in need of serious reform."(14)

I believe that human nature is a good nature that needs to be guarded carefully. One's behaviors and views are heavily influenced by the environment he or she was raised it. This includes, political and religious beliefs, region in which one grew up, one's caretakers, etc. Even with these factors, some of human nature can't be changed right away. Therefore, we can see that human nature is uniformly good by observing young children. Most young children are in good spirits when around others and are for the most part good. These children haven't grown up enough to be completely influenced by their environments which leads me to believe that if human nature isn't uniformly bad.

Religion vs. Faith

In today's class, a fellow student brought up the question of whether or not religion is necessary to form a society. One of the points I thought was most interesting was that without religion, we would not know what was considered moral. After thinking about this point, I have come up with my opinion on the subject.

In my opinion, there is a difference between religion and faith. One can be faithful without practicing religion. Religion, as another student pointed out, is more of a central idea that concerns all of society. Faith, on the other hand, is a belief in a higher power, which in most cases is a god. So with that in mind, my answer to the question is that a society can follow the main confucian idea of benevolence above all else, without religion. One can live without an organized religion and still gain knowledge on good morals from a higher being through their faith.

Introduction

Hello. My name is Taylor Krowitz. I am a freshman here at MCLA and I am majoring in history and political science. I'm currently planning on becoming a lawyer with my focus being international law. I can speak french fluently and I am currently learning spanish and hope to take italian classes as well. I enjoy playing tennis more than anything. I have been playing for 4 years. I play number 1 singles player and am on the number 1 doubles team for the MCLA men's tennis team. At the moment, philosophy goes way over my head. However, I hope that by the end of the semester, I will be able to not only understand most of the classroom and blog discussions but also contribute new ideas to these discussions. That's all I have to share.