The idea of good and evil has been rooted in various parts of civilization, culture, and society. According to Genesis, when Adam and Eve eat off the tree of good and evil, they see what god sees. They aren't born with any concept of good or evil, they are innocent and naive, and like this idea in Genesis, John Locke believed that people were born without any understanding of good or evil. He believed that at birth the human mind is a like a blank tablet, tabula rasa, and that over time's one's environment becomes inscribed on the tablet. Do you agree with Lockte, or do you agree with Decartes, who believed humans are born with a general understanding of the world? As soon as I read Lockte's theory on a human's mind, I thought of Sigmund Froid's model of the psyche. Froid believed that the psyche was divided into id, ego, and superego. All humans are born with id, or subconscious animalistic instincts to cry, to eat, etc. Ego, starts out as conscious, but throughout one's life it become subconscious; it's an effort to get one's wants, but in a socially acceptable way. Finally, superego is a conscious effort at perfection, which society expects of one. All humans are born with id, and it's all we know; we don't care about anyone else, it's all about self-satisfaction and doing anything to get it, and for frankly we don’t know any better. We expect everyone to get us what we want when we want it. Therefore, at birth we don't know if we're being mean, all we know is "I". As we grow older, we develop ego; we're not as self-centered, we realize that there others and that we need to share, but we are still selfish. When we’re young children, we are very trusting of people and we are gullible, but when we're deceived it's mind-boggling and we react with strong emotions. As we grow, it becomes natural to expect disappointment. Interacting with society, and suffering the consequences of our flaws start the formation of superego. When we're young, our parents reprimand us by saying things like, "No that's bad," "Don't do that." Through interacting, we understanding how nice people are supposed to act, while simultaneously learning that others are deceitful and evil. We then develop a front, superego, through which we try to radiate kindness. After this process is complete, we all have the idea of good and evil, but that doesn't mean we are all pure and friendly, we choose (whether it be subconsciously or consciously) to act in certain manners. Like a tablet, we can erase concepts from our memory, but the remnants always remain. Do you think we can ever forget the concept of good and evil?

Although we develop a sense of good and evil in our lives (as Lockte proclaimed), we also always have our id within us, and according to Thomas Hobbes, "with a common power to keep them all [men] in awe, they are in that condition which is called war, and such war as is of every man against every man." When men go to war, good and evil are at the backdrop of the scene, and we all go back to birth-where we know nothing. Do you agree with this? All there is to do is to defend oneself. He also says that as a result of war there is, "continual fear," because although brute headed, we still know of evil and people’s capabilities. The theme of war between men manifests itself in William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies. In the novel, a group of boys end up stranded on an island without the eye of society on them, they break into war with each other. At first they get along, but quickly their superegos crumble and their ids burns through. Eventually some of the boys are oblivious to their evil ways, while three characters still have their understanding of good and evil. Not only is there a continuous war between the boys, but there is also a battle between good an evil and by the end of the novel, we realize that the two go hand and hand. Sometimes the line between good and evil gets blurred, and the perception of good and evil varies from person to person. In society good and evil are omnipresent, and as we progress in our lives, our understanding of them grows. Do you think our perception of good and evil changes throughout one’s life?