People are capable of both tremendous good and tremendous evil, says Caldwell.

Yeah, I was thinking about worldview on the way here, because I think on some level at its essence, what’s really most fundamentally distinct about people’s worldviews is whether they believe people are fundamentally good or fundamentally not good. Or put differently, evil, lazy, self-interested as many philosophers have suggested . . . western philosophers, often white men. And I must confess that I . . . I am motivated by a belief that people are capable of goodness; that everybody is capable of goodness and tremendous evil; and that who we are and how we manifest ourselves in the world depends entirely on the circumstances that surround us. And that what . . . what’s most important for that very reason is living each and every moment of our lives with as much integrity, and as much love, and as much clarity as we can muster. Because it is in each and every one of those moments that we manifest our potential to be fully human, which is to be fully good. I don’t . . . I don’t believe that people are ultimately self-interested. I think they become that way out of fear. And I don’t believe that people are evil. I think they become that way in response to threats or perceived threats. And that . . . I think that really is critical to who I am and how I am in the world. And I think if I were cynical about people, and who they are, and how they are, I wouldn’t be able to do what it is that I’m doing. Because I do believe that we can tap into what is universal in all of us, which is, you know, a desire to be loved and cared for; and to love and to care for other people. And that stories we’re telling enables us to tap into that potential, and that power, and that beauty.

Recorded on: 8/13/07