“Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity”
-Xunzi
Morality has been questioned time and time again. Is it its inability to render its purpose? Maybe. The reccurence of this question is the concomitant to the curiosity that humans are run by.
What is morality? Different philosophers have different say in this. For Socrates it is identical to prudence. Similarly, Aristotle’s definition of moral virtue is a disposition to behave in a right manner. And then on the contrary Kant believes that the shared ability of human to reason should be the basis of morality. While the most scandalous of all is what the writer, Dostoevsky fought, morality!
At one place where society flourishes on the grounds of morality, an individual on the other hand may be morally nihilistic. The dilemma arises due to the subjective nature of morality. For what is moral for one may be chaos to another. On such understanding, can one think the motives an individual thrives on, will necessarily be the best for the society? Let us tackle this subject with the Socratic method of questioning.
What is the nature of humans? Humans are driven by personal motives and agendas for their gain, happiness, power and security. But according to Socrates all the works done by an individual will not furnish the best work. That is where diversity hence, society comes into picture. Everyone has a part to play in the society. So, the political idea of society ensures part well-being of most of the individuals in the system by the virtue of every individual in the system itself. Even through the scientific point of view, evolution ensures the survival of the species, reproduction ensures the perpetuation of the species and in turn it is made pleasurable to the individual, so that the individual stays motivated to do so. This implies that humans are social beings.
But can this alone ensure that the best of an individual will necessarily be the best for society?
The answer is NO! History has often conveyed the pictures where an individual’s interest was lying, there as grotesque as mass genocidal pictures have been painted.
A political association started in Germany under the name “National Socialist German Workers Party”, a party that used “socialist” in its epithet! Was astray under the leadership of an individual driven by an ill ideology and motive, which led to the horrid events that still shakes the society till this date.
According to Socrates doing unjust to such people is what is justice. A mother of a hungry if steals medicine to save her child is injustice in the eyes of law. Do you think it is morally correct to punish that woman? What happened to Medusa, for the kind of woman she was, was that morally correct? Such questions makes people question morality.
But why does an individual with extraordinary abilities thrive for a share in a society when he/she can have the whole world to himself/herself? Philosophers and writers have often pondered on this question since ages. Plato and Socrates did it in The Republic while Doestvsky did it in the Crime And Punishment. Plato says, “to prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.” But I feel it is highly debatable. If that is the case then why be good?
We are all born humans but there is something in this world that makes us inhuman and something that makes us Übermensch! Yes! An answer in philosophy by Friedrich Nietzsche. His Übermensh acts to create new values within the moral vacuum of nihilism because there is nothing this creative act would not justify. He says, these values must not be motivated by the same instincts that gave birth to the school of thoughts such as Platonic idealism or Asceticism,instead they must be motivated by a love of this world, this society and of life!
Because at the end the actual meaning of practicing power is to practice it on yourself, the actual meaning of happiness is to share that happiness with someone, the actual gain is to gain the knowledge of what is unknown to you and the actual sense of security is in giving the world so much that one day the world becomes your voice.