I interviewed four people and discuss the topic of human nature. Human nature is the general psychological characteristics, feelings, and behavioral traits of humankind, regarded as shared by all humans.The four people I chose to interview were Antoine Valentino Sr., Michelle Jefferson, Lynell Morris and Larry Brassea. My interview was about four questions. The four questions were: Do you think people are basically born good or evil, do you think a person’s personality is mostly a result of nature or nurture, are men and women basically the same or substantially different and finally what are three laws that should be passed or better enforced to improve our society. As I interviewed each person I received similar yet various responses.
My first interview was with Larry Brassea. Larry was born and raised in Richmond, California. Larry is my Youth Group leader. He is 64 years old and is a county leader of an organization called Younglife. Younglife is a religious group for teenagers. Larry feels that people are born good but have bad intentions. For example he says that people take shortcuts and try to take advantage of others physically and mentally. People with bad intentions take advantage of people such as name-calling, abuse or even stealing. So in result people know what they are doing but still choose to have bad intentions. This theory is very similar to Mencius theory. On Page 96 in “Reading the World Ideas that Matter” Mencius said “In good years, young men are mostly fine. In bad years, they’re mostly cruel and violent.” This quote has a correlation with Larry’s idea based on people in bad years have bad intentions. As people are born they are born good, however through tribulations a person may experience their bad years make them have bad intentions. In addition to Larry‘s and Mencius statement Hsun Tzu is in correlation to both. On page 101 in the book “Reading the World Ideas that Matter” Hsun Tzu says “He is born with feelings of envy and hate, and if he indulges these, they will lead into violence and crime and all sense of good faith will disappear.” These quotes have an correlation due to if the bad years come at an early ages and he or she indulges in those bad intentions then their good faith will disappear. People know what they are doing and make choices in life they want to do. As for a person’s personality Larry feels that nature as well as nurture plays a role into a person’s personality. He used an example of people who are adopted and explained that people are dependent on either nature or nurture depending on their lives. People who are adopted are now from their adopted family which would be DNA but their family and outside culture will influenced the person. On the flip side on someone who grew up in their own family the nature of DNA will simply fall into place in how a person will naturally be. In difference to Nature and nurture Larry feels that men and women are substantially different. He says that primarily nature makes men and women different then secondary nurture. A women’s nature is made to be more caring and nurturing to their offspring or associates as for the men is more vulgar. To conclude my interview with Larry he did not feel that any laws would improve our society. He said “If you make three more laws you are going to have to make six laws.” Larry explained that to me by saying if you make three rules you will have to make three more laws to define the last three. You will have to define each law because people will try to take advantage of those laws. So in result people will constantly be making laws and be will always take advantage of them. My second interview was with Michelle Jefferson. Michelle Jefferson is a 46 year old woman and who was born and raised in San Francisco, California. She is my mother and works at the Highland Hospital in Oakland, California. When I interview Michelle she believes that people are born good but the things that happen around them can