Do people have an innate nature? Is there such a thing as human nature, or are we a blank slate just waiting to be written upon? This is different than asking if mankind is inherently good. There are many people that believe we are all basically good. But before we can talk about whether man is good or not, it is important to know what makes us human.
The dominant view in the university today is that we have no universal human nature. We are essentially the product of our environment and experiences. It is assumed that all of our knowledge and values come from our sensory experiences. If that is true, then a how a person thinks and behaves can be controlled. All you have to do is control what the senses send to the mind.
Once the mind’s input is controlled we can create virtuous people. This process of molding people was called “education” by French philosopher Claude Helvetius. Richard Pipes in The Russian Revolution explains the social and political philosophy of Helvetius. “He meant by education everything that surrounds man and affects his thinking, everything that furnishes his mind with sensations and generates ideas. First and foremost it meant legislation: ‘It is…only by good laws that we can form virtuous men.’” Pipes thought this to be “one of the most revolutionary ideas in the history of political thought.”
Isn’t it interesting that the self-appointed elite of our culture, our “educators,” see the lack of virtue in people as a problem. Yet, for them the problem is best addressed by education and legislation (a view as old as Plato, by the way). They do not see an inherent problem with people, just a problem with their environment, their education, their socialization, or their economic status. Mold these external factors and people will naturally do what is good. This is why we put so much time and money into education, social programs, and wealth redistribution schemes.
Are we any more virtuous? Not really. I think an older wisdom addresses the problem much better. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All of us are broken because none of us are perfect. The only one who is perfect is God. Without Him, we are stuck in our brokenness and sin (not a very popular word today). This is who we are in our nature. This is why we need someone to save us, because we can’t do it ourselves. Yet this knowledge doesn’t just come from sensory input. It comes from our nature as humans; something we can accept or deny. We know this intuitively because it is built into us. J. Budziszewski calls it “what we can’t not know.”
An even more ancient wise man told young people who were intent on being wise leaders themselves the starting point of all knowledge. It is not with our senses. Solomon wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” If God is not the beginning reference for knowledge, then we will be our own reference point. When that happens, then we believe we no longer have an innate nature, but are creatures to be molded and crafted by those who know better.