RE: Pascal's wager
July 31, 2012 at 9:42 pm
(This post was last modified: July 31, 2012 at 9:49 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(July 31, 2012 at 8:55 pm)Rhizomorph13 Wrote: Good question Epi, I suppose it depends on your definition of evil. Are you evil if you don't feel bad about doing evil things? Does evil even exist without an observer to judge the action or person?
I feel that good and evil are relative terms so, within the framework of a society is the only place where "evil" has any meaning; given that, a person can be evil AND feel bad about it in my opinion.
Jonb, intersting points. I would say that, within a society, we would have to make judgements based on effect rather than intent, because intent in nigh impossible to apprehend and feeling bad about killing someone has never made them any less dead.
Yet we do assign different degrees to precisely this crime based upon intent. The difference between murder and manslaughter is not whether or not someone is dead but how and why they ended up that way. Perhaps there is a good reason that we do this, or perhaps it is an expression of that empathy we've just invoked (not that this wouldn't be a good reason in my estimation). Our willingness to extend mercy to those who we feel truly did not intend for or fully comprehend the consequences of their actions. If it were the latter, I would guess that this has something to do with our laws being crafted with that sort of empathy -even if it seems impractical or illogical when phrased another way- in mind to begin with.
The effect is what precedes the trial. The trial itself is often dominated by intent, empathy, emotion, instinct...etc. Effect seems to influence how we apprehend, or who does the apprehending, much more than it does the doling out of rulings.
Run over a kid on a bicycle and a patrolman arrests you. Shoot up a bank and you get a Tac Unit. In either case you will get a jury very much the same as any other (should you require it) and that jury will likely be deciding their ruling on everything except the effect.
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