In Chinese philosophy, there are 2 main views of human nature, also known as renxing, as proposed by Mengzi and Xunzi. I want to know which philosophy seems more logical or correct.
Mengzi says that human nature is generally neutral, and that humans tend towards goodness. He thinks humans are "good" people, like how water tends to go downwards, we tend to act in a good way. Badness comes from unnatural or outside sources, and is not in our nature.
Xunzi, on the other hand, does not believe human nature is inherently good. He thinks that our nature is crude and not good. In order to do good, we must make a conscious effort to do so, it does not come naturally. He says our nature is greedy and animalistic, and thus we should reject this human nature in order to do good things. We need to civilize people and educate them to form them into decent human beings.
I am leaning towards Xunzi's way of thinking, as I think people in nature would not care about the well-being of others and would indeed act selfishly and unjust. What do you guys think? Any comments are welcome, I just want to know more opinions on the matter, thank you!
