does evil exist in its own right?

[Reforged]

Morality is just a system of thought created by humans. It exists as much as any other apriori concept.

[The Grand Nudger]

For me there are no eternal rules, and even the worst actions have causes. This is why I really like the idea of the jury system because your actions are judged by your peers, who will have an understanding of your personal morality.

Or they might be a capricious little mini-mob ready to take all their frustration out on you.

[jonb]

Yes it has all sorts of things wrong with it, for instance committees always have those that will side with the strongest voice, and half the people in them don't pay attention, and some just make an initial conclusion based on how nice the cloths are that people are wearing, but it, it seems to me is the best we have.

[Tino]

The way I see evil cannot 'spawn' or create anything except in the loosest figurative sense because evil does not 'exist' in it's own right. Nor does 'good'. Saying evil causes things is flirting with supernatural belief.

Well said, and I would go a touch farther by removing the "flirting with."

[Whatkins]

Nope. Good and evil are concepts we assign to different things. You do not need to look further than the Jewish and Muslim penchant for genital mutilation and the secular abhorrence for it to understand this.

[Brian37]

We are the same species. "Evil" is that which goes beyond dispute or rivalry. It is anything if you survayed all humans, the most extreem harm no one would want to happen to themselves while sane.

[Whateverist]

Nope, only evil in context.

[Mystic]

Evil is the negative polar opposite of goodness. It doesn't exist independently, it exists with respect goodness which does exist it's own right. It exists in mind/soul but what has true existence is goodness. Goodness is positive existence and has real existence. It has an objective basis in eternal reality (God) and trickles down to us within our subjective context (plato's cave) where we need to see our inner morality through culture and society yet are also blinded by society and culture. We are in tune with objective morality in some cases and not in tune in others.

[Brian37]

Nope, only evil in context.

Yes and no which makes it contextual.

Like I said, when someone is sane, for example. You fuck with their child and they will react. If someone comes at you with a knife or a gun, you react.

The context is who is doing what and why, but the reaction is overlaping in fight or flight.

Our evolution favors survival and "evil" is IN CONTEXT anything that threatens that survival.

It can only be contextual on a very superficial label based tribal issue. But we all have the same common evolutionary drive in want of food, shelter, means of survival and being free from personal physical harm.

I don't think we are really on different pages here.

If anything I could call the utlimate evil would be our own credulity and lack of introspection that we are the same species capable of the same actions both good and bad.

[The Grand Nudger]

Evil is the negative polar opposite of goodness. It doesn't exist independently, it exists with respect goodness which does exist it's own right. It exists in mind/soul but what has true existence is goodness. Goodness is positive existence and has real existence. It has an objective basis in eternal reality (God) and trickles down to us within our subjective context (plato's cave) where we need to see our inner morality through culture and society yet are also blinded by society and culture. We are in tune with objective morality in some cases and not in tune in others.

Ho ho ho, strop right there. I've changed my tune, and do you know why? Because goodness is simply the polar opposite of evil. It doesn't exist independently, it exists with respect to evil which does exist in it's own right.