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2018 Abstracts Stage 2

‘Can a person be born truly evil?’ An analysis of the origin and concept of innate and acquired knowledge, morality and evil in human nature.

Project objectives and aims:
• To critically analyse the debate between rationalists and empiricists in accordance with the origin of knowledge, morality and evil, with reference to innate ideas and knowledge acquired through experience.
• Establish which arguments presented by the scholars prove most convincing as to whether a person is inherently evil or if this is learnt from experience of a person’s upbringing.
• Generate a deeper understanding into the concepts and notions that surround mankind’s nature.

What I hope to receive from the dissertation:
• I hope to develop my research and analysis skills by using a variety of sources from scholars that range from early Greek philosophy, to the enlightenment era and contemporary twenty- first century thinkers.