Caring only for the pursuit of profit, even with harm, a bad person only follows personal desire. ... What makes a person good or bad is much the same amongst the leading views, but the idea that man is born with an evil nature is not. ... While Hsun-Tzu believed that man was naturally evil, I believe that people are actually born with both the seed of good and evil. One's growth of the seeds depends very much on the environment surrounding him or her, especially when young. ... It is circumstance and upbringing that lead one to being good or bad. ...

• Word Count: 1407
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Confucianism took a humanistic approach in which an individual's action determined whether they were good or bad. ... He perceived benevolence as seeds, like apple seeds, which after being sown, will sprout and grow. " This renders the idea that an individual uses oneself as a role model to standardize one's behavior in relative to others around them. ...

• Word Count: 1267
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

While both Confucius and Mencius believed that virtues could be developed, it was Mencius that approached the naturally arriving question of whether man is fundamentally good or bad. ... Mencius goes even further to point out that each of these tendencies are seeds to a specific cardinal virtue: 'the heart of compassion' develops into the germ of benevolence; 'the heart of shame', the germ of dutifulness; 'the heart of courtesy and modesty', the germ of the observance of the rites; and 'the heart of right and wrong', the germ of wisdom (Mencius 38). ...

• Word Count: 1787
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate