Mencius and Rousseau agreed that humans are good by nature, but they have been corrupted by the circumstances of life.

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Both Mencius, a Confucian philosopher, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Genevan philosopher, believed that humans are inherently good but are corrupted by societal institutions and the circumstances of life. Mencius argued that human nature is good and that moral evils in a person are due to the detrimental influence of the environment. Similarly, Rousseau believed that humans in their state of nature were good and that society's influence corrupts them, leading to inequality, competition, and vice.

Mencius and Rousseau Agreed That Humans Are Good by Nature