Thread: What is Evil?

OK, I'll start.
(I don't count JMS' response as a legitimate response, though it might truly be evil!)

Skipping any religious aspects, I'll say that evil is the willingness to do whatever you want for your own personal benefit with the full knowledge that what you do will cause harm to others. Evil is not caring at all about the extent of that harm.

Originally Posted by Utopian

OK, I'll start.
(I don't count JMS' response as a legitimate response, though it might truly be evil!)

Skipping any religious aspects, I'll say that evil is the willingness to do whatever you want for your own personal benefit with the full knowledge that what you do will cause harm to others. Evil is not caring at all about the extent of that harm.

Thats not evil. That is simply selfish. There is no such thing as evil or good for that matter, only yin and yang. What some consider evil others regard as a necessary tool to keep balance in this world. Everything exists perfectly in this world to maintain balance. As humans as a whole we thrive off of the so called "evil". It offers as a mechanism to make us stronger and continue to evolve.

The world or human life is not black and white.
I'd like to think that good and evil are relative. By doing an act that looks absolutely 'good' for someone (individual or group), that same act, at the same time, might be something that is pure 'evil' towards someone else. Whether you are aware of all the consequences of your acts is not important: you can't judge your own acts in the terms of good and evil.
And: what are your motives for doing something that looks 'good' or 'evil'. If your motives are selfish, does/doesn't it make the good/evil you make little lesser?

Originally Posted by Bruno

Imo, evil is the absence of empathy. We all have desires and thoughts that we keep suppressed. For most people this is not a problem because they realize that those desires a) bring unfortunate consequences with them and b) they can empathise with other people.

If the above are of no concern, then that means your actions will most likely be or become evil.

That is how i like to think too.

Philosophers have tried to solve this thing for thousands of years without getting absolute truth.
I do not believe such things as absolute good or absolute evil (or at least such things are very very rare).
Just tryin' to do live my life without knowingly hurting anyone, be it human or animal.