Are We Fundamentally Good?
On Rousseau, Luther, and Skepticism
Luther claims we are fundamentally sinful, distorted.
Rousseau assumes we are fundamentally good. It’s society that messed us up.
Skeptics, Buddhists, and Rabbinic sages largely argue that we are neutral—good and bad are judgments or stories that we make up, but that don’t inhere in our basic existence (which is beyond good and evil, to borrow Nietzsche’…
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