Roma asked:

Is man good by nature? Can you cite a proof why yes or no, a proof from a particular philosopher, or
a philosophy of man?

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In my answer to Shaif I referred to the work of Levinas who says that what is special about humans is
that we can transcend nature towards ethics. But suppose for a moment that we were unable to do
this, what would it be like?

My guess is that things would stay pretty much the same, we would still have relationships, we would
still donate to charity, we would still have babies, we would still be polite to people. But what would be
different as the philosopher Kant notices, is that we would do all these things not because it is right to
do them but because of other reasons, self satisfaction, self-interest, sentiment, these reasons may
be useful and beneficial, they are done in accordancewith the Good requires but are they done
because they are what the good requires?

Consider cases where the Good may require us to give up our life for someone, how may penguins
have you seen thrown himself on a grenade to save his fellow penguins? A penguin may trip and fall
on a grenade when it is about to explode and save the colony but that wouldn't be self-sacrifice. Self
sacrifice is not part of nature, it requires something special.

It requires that we move beyond the binds of nature. Penguins can't do this but we can. Kant thought
this move involved reason giving itself laws of action, ones not conditioned by inclinations or
motivations, but are followed solely for its own sake (see his Groundwork for the Metaphysics of
Morals). Levinas suggests that the move is made when we encounter the special presence of an
other person, who demands our help. This move does not just solely require sacrificing my life, rather
all ethical acts are an act of self sacrifice of some kind, it is the putting of the others needs before my
own.

Levinas argues that the other person is special in that are Other, they are different from me and to
treat them as if they were the same, would be to do them a violence, it would be to take something
away from them. Therefore in order to protect this otherness, I must not place them in or reduce them
to a mere role in nature, they are better than that.

Humans then are not good by nature, they are self satisfying animals, but because we can transcend
nature, we can do good. All that is Good about humans is unnatural:

""Ethics is, therefore, against nature, because it forbids the murderousness of my natural will to put
my own existence first".

(dialogue with Levinas)"

Brian Tee