In What Sense Do Socialists Have a Positive View of Human Nature?

Socialists regard humans as essentially social creatures, they believe their capacity and behaviour to be shaped more by nurture than by nature, and believe this to be particularly shaped through creative labour.

Socialists believe humans to have a natural tendency for cooperation, sociability and rationality. In the view of a socialist, this means the prospects for personal growth and social development and considerable. This is a positive view of human nature, as cooperation and sociability are generally praised upon.

Socialists see any issue of moral corruption as down to bad nurturing and that humans are not evil, but born good. Socialists believe that the way of overcoming social and economic problems is to draw on the power of the community and work together to pursue goals, instead of striving for self-interest.

Socialists also view humans as 'comrades' bound together by a common humanity, this is often expressed through the concept of fraternity. This idea of fraternity is a positive view of human nature as it implies that individuals will work together, and live good lives with their fellow humans in mind.

Socialists believe that competition, caused by capitalism, breeds selfishness and aggression. This immoral behaviour, however, is not the fault of humans but instead is the fault of the fundamentally flawed capitalist system, and therefore humans can use their moral compass to work together to overcome the negativity caused by capitalism.

Socialists also believe humans can be given a moral incentive to work hard within the community, a view which opposes the liberal view of a material incentive. This moral incentive is the desire from within to have a responsibility within society because of the natural sense of sympathy for fellow humans. This socialist view on human nature is extremely positive as it implies that humans are caring towards one another and are capable of making good moral decisions

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