My take is that evil might not actually exist, at all. I mean, it's kind of hard to even define evil, and for every act you might call "evil" there's a bigger or another context in which the same act dictates the survival of a majority, so evil actually is a matter of moral subjectivity and emotional appeal, on wars for instance, both sides usually regard the other as evil.
I think what exists is twisted psychologies, psychiatric disorders and instabilities that lead some "agressors" to their acts, but i would say that all of these people can't really be called "evil" as for them, there's a rational explanation/motivation for their acts that are actually not so "evil", they are just , "peanuts".

Good and evil are definitely subjective, as they change over time. It's easier to look at it by what does more help or harm to everyone.

(September 7, 2014 at 7:30 am)Madness20 Wrote: My take is that evil might not actually exist, at all. I mean, it's kind of hard to even define evil, and for every act you might call "evil" there's a bigger or another context in which the same act dictates the survival of a majority, so evil actually is a matter of moral subjectivity and emotional appeal, on wars for instance, both sides usually regard the other as evil.
I think what exists is twisted psychologies, psychiatric disorders and instabilities that lead some "agressors" to their acts, but i would say that all of these people can't really be called "evil" as for them, there's a rational explanation/motivation for their acts that are actually not so "evil", they are just , "peanuts".

I'm pretty sure sending women and children to the gas chambers because of their blood line and inability to participate in hard labor is evil in the purest sense of the word.

(September 7, 2014 at 10:34 am)Pickup_shonuff Wrote:

(September 7, 2014 at 7:30 am)Madness20 Wrote: My take is that evil might not actually exist, at all. I mean, it's kind of hard to even define evil, and for every act you might call "evil" there's a bigger or another context in which the same act dictates the survival of a majority, so evil actually is a matter of moral subjectivity and emotional appeal, on wars for instance, both sides usually regard the other as evil.
I think what exists is twisted psychologies, psychiatric disorders and instabilities that lead some "agressors" to their acts, but i would say that all of these people can't really be called "evil" as for them, there's a rational explanation/motivation for their acts that are actually not so "evil", they are just , "peanuts".

I'm pretty sure sending women and children to the gas chambers because of their blood line and inability to participate in hard labor is evil in the purest sense of the word.

Or maybe evil is to empathy as cold is to heat. When some villain kills women and children as an expedience we are aghast at the lack of human feeling. But does that mean there is actually something else driving that person which is evil? Maybe it is only their failure to take the value of life into account. Their actual goals may not be anything we'd call evil in themselves. It may just be their indifference to the ensuing suffering which "evil" refers to. Sort of like the choices of so many corporations.

(September 7, 2014 at 10:42 am)whateverist Wrote: Or maybe evil is to empathy as cold is to heat. When some villain kills women and children as an expedience we are aghast at the lack of human feeling. But does that mean there is actually something else driving that person which is evil?

It certainly can mean that. Racism, for example, is an irrational hatred towards an entire class of people. Can you defend such a point of view as anything but an offspring and further source of evil?

Quote:Maybe it is only their failure to take the value of life into account. Their actual goals may not be anything we'd call evil in themselves. It may just be their indifference to the ensuing suffering which "evil" refers to. Sort of like the choices of so many corporations.

The ends do not justify the means, especially when human beings are viewed as the means.

I guess I'm saying that evil may be more of a "means kind of thing" than an "ends kind of thing".

(September 7, 2014 at 10:34 am)Pickup_shonuff Wrote: I'm pretty sure sending women and children to the gas chambers because of their blood line and inability to participate in hard labor is evil in the purest sense of the word.

From most people's perspective of course it is. But if you believe that they're sub-human you might feel you could treat them the same as animals. Some people used to feel that about blacks. The slave trade was not considered evil at the time, just a source of money.

Invasions and empires were very normal throughout history but would now be termed evil.

(September 7, 2014 at 10:34 am)Pickup_shonuff Wrote:

(September 7, 2014 at 7:30 am)Madness20 Wrote: My take is that evil might not actually exist, at all. I mean, it's kind of hard to even define evil, and for every act you might call "evil" there's a bigger or another context in which the same act dictates the survival of a majority, so evil actually is a matter of moral subjectivity and emotional appeal, on wars for instance, both sides usually regard the other as evil.
I think what exists is twisted psychologies, psychiatric disorders and instabilities that lead some "agressors" to their acts, but i would say that all of these people can't really be called "evil" as for them, there's a rational explanation/motivation for their acts that are actually not so "evil", they are just , "peanuts".

I'm pretty sure sending women and children to the gas chambers because of their blood line and inability to participate in hard labor is evil in the purest sense of the word.

Yeah, nothing Yahweh does can be impure.

(September 7, 2014 at 11:31 am)Diablo Wrote: From most people's perspective of course it is. But if you believe that they're sub-human you might feel you could treat them the same as animals. Some people used to feel that about blacks. The slave trade was not considered evil at the time, just a source of money.

Invasions and empires were very normal throughout history but would now be termed evil.

All knowledge is a process of growth. Did the Ptolemaic system of the cosmos only cease to be "true" with the Copernican revolution? Of course not. So, why should moral systems not be allowed the same flexibility while yet maintaining that their principles had been virtually true, considering their basis in rational axioms, prior to recognition and/or formulation?

(September 7, 2014 at 10:34 am)Pickup_shonuff Wrote:

(September 7, 2014 at 7:30 am)Madness20 Wrote: My take is that evil might not actually exist, at all. I mean, it's kind of hard to even define evil, and for every act you might call "evil" there's a bigger or another context in which the same act dictates the survival of a majority, so evil actually is a matter of moral subjectivity and emotional appeal, on wars for instance, both sides usually regard the other as evil.
I think what exists is twisted psychologies, psychiatric disorders and instabilities that lead some "agressors" to their acts, but i would say that all of these people can't really be called "evil" as for them, there's a rational explanation/motivation for their acts that are actually not so "evil", they are just , "peanuts".

I'm pretty sure sending women and children to the gas chambers because of their blood line and inability to participate in hard labor is evil in the purest sense of the word.

What i'm saying is that obviously people that do that kind of crimes usually have a complete different psychology and prejudice and see themselves as actually doing a favor for humanity or their group. Be it mental diseases, irrational hatred, ideology, religion , or other foundation for such behaviour, the fact is most of them are mechanisms of survival, and without a doubt humans always did crimes because it's potentially evolutionary advantage, even animals kill offsprings of other males just for the sake of their own offspring.
Believe it or not, when the nazis put people in gas chambers, they trully thought it was a good idea.