I personally think yes... but would say that it varies in degree from person to person. And that conformity/integrity has a restraining effect.

I know this is surprising, but I am gonna say "No."

I think that the world is inherently bad, but that people are inherently good. Usually evil behaviors are more appealing and sometimes easier to do than good ones, leading good people to do bad things.

We are grey. Grey is, Black(bad) + White(good) = Grey.

To jackass1987: We're in between? We have two natures? There's also a stance where people think we are born neutral (blank slate) and we learn through experience (a posteriori).

Humanity as a whole, is more or less neutral. We begin with a blank slate and as we experience things, our world is shaped around us. So people are in between, probably with a leaning towards the 'good' end of the spectrum. Then again, people very rarely believe that they're 'evil' or 'bad'.

jackass1987

We are grey. Grey is, Black(bad) + White(good) = Grey.

Add On, We do good things and bad things so grey we are.

I would say yes. If you left a baby alone in the street, no parents, no guidance, nothing, he won't be leading a "good" life. A baby will steal and whine, kick and destroy stuff all around. It's a class discussion we had a couple years ago in high school and I remember it well. At first I thought "hell no, most people in this world are good people, so no I doubt humans are inherently bad" but after the discussion I realized that the reason most of society is sane is because we had some sort of education, protection and guidance on what's good and what's not. If you take all that away and tell a child to survive on their own, it won't turn out really well, from our perspective at least.

I do believe there are is no black and white, or grey-tones for that matter. But my gut-opinion would be that most people are sub-intelligent bastards. I say this probably because of my experience with bullying (I'll try not to whine here). Also, the Milgram Experiment.
And what we deal with are completely normal people. And it has all taught me that there is nothing inherently good with being normal.

To be fair, i would say its evil

no one on this planet can say they have never done anything bad, no matter how small it was, yes, of course the things classed as evil may vary between, stealing sweets when you were young, to murder for example. both are evil, just different extremes of evil, so overall i would say human nature is evil,

just my thoughts

Emsden

I personally think "YES"!...
because just live enough is evil!...coz...because we are alive...any another people is dead!...dont you agree?
and the nature of human instings is evil!..."Selfish" is the nature of human insting i think!

To AlsoSprachOdin: sub-intelligent? What is that, not intelligent? If so how do you define intelligence, I personally think there are variety of intelligences. For example, musical/art, english/language, math, emotional, etc. But I think that people should be more analytical and not just be so emotional succumbing to only their biases.

To crimson-blue: I would agree that human nature is selfishness/egotistical/narcissictic to varying degrees. But some selfishness is relevant to our life, no one can be fully selfless. I would also say that though selfishness is the main cause for doing evil/bad things.

I would say at the individual level, humans are essentially neutral until they develop one way or the other. And if my memory serves me well then I believe that it was Socrates that said that there is a root of evil in all people. Real "evil" is when we act upon that root. It has always been thought that there is evil in everyone, yet every person, every society, every culture has a different idea of what being "evil" really means. Socrates also said no one can know good yet choose evil; if they do an evil act, they mistook it for a good one. I've done a lot of research on the topic of good vs. evil and the most common thing I've found is that there is no good definition to the word evil and that evil actions are not morally justified.

One's upbringing, environment, etc. often influence morality and different morals may be seen as good or evil. Hitler thought he was doing the right thing in his purge against the Jewish people because that was his belief, his moral. Does that make his acts evil? Debatable. I am not saying I personally believe Hitler wasn't evil. Everything I'm telling you is theory; I don't think there is a real answer to your question. I suggest that you read Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. It's the prequel to the Wizard of Oz. Though fiction, it raises many good points on the ideas of good and evil.

Longbow

If you left a baby alone in the street, no parents, no guidance, nothing, he won't be leading a "good" life. A baby will steal and whine, kick and destroy stuff all around.

If you leave a baby alone in the street it will die. For the baby to survive it has to be taken care of by someone.

I think that the natural nature of people is neutral. People have the freedom of choice. So, if someone becomes good or evil when they grow up it is because they have chosen that path, not because the human species as a whole is evil or good. As for why they have chosen that path there could be a good reason, but it does not change the fact that it was their choice.

Not trying to be rude or anything but to me your question is quite flawed in that you assume humans must have a 'basic nature'. Humans as a whole are to broad in their differences to be grouped as one subtype. A stretched example would be to ask why are most fishes so aggressive. I am referring to sharks as being the aggressors, but not all fish nor all sharks are aggressive.

Humans like all animals exist only to survive, no matter how much humans may think more of themselves. When circumstances arise humans will react in a way to save either themselves, kin, or their own, so long as their species survives. Humans are also driven by animal instincts and as products of nature nothing is prefect mutations do occur. Evil.. is a word created by humans. Only humans can be evil, there are no evil animals or storms or plants, they simply exist. Humans are evil and humans are good, if to be so broad. You can not treat this as an equation, where you add all the good people and all the bad and once compared the higher number reigns.

Evil is not an absoltue negative nor is Good an absolute positive. When compared together humans are both evil and good, therefore they are both, neither and neutral. The soil and the ocean exist together it only depends on where you are looking, and where you are standing. It's basically neither since good and evil are all relative to your subjection.

The question of this thread seems to be already implying that humans are evil. What people need to remember is this: good and evil are subjective terms. Humans are the only species on this planet with an intelligence that is capable of judging and criticizing themselves. Other animal species simply exist and survive by instinct. Survival of the fittest is how it works in the animal kingdom. Yet for humans, it's a lot more complicated than that. One can't group human beings into such a narrow space: good or evil.

Humans innately have a bit of both worlds. It depends from person to person and how a person was educated since childhood. But the thing is, humans are easily tempted, some more so than others. We aren't perfect creatures. What matters is how we tame our flaws. Like my professor would say when he spreads people out during a test, "It's not that I suspect you guys would cheat, but let's keep the honest people honest."