Nothing Can Be Good or Evil in Itself
"Truth, beauty, and goodness are not eternal, objective realities which man discovers, but are the creative products of the human mind as it exercises its 'will-to-power'. In other words, man is a creator of values." (Nietzsche) So what is good and evil, but that defined by man and therefore a purely subjective concept. Could we, society, have one without the other? By determining what is good, we in turn determine what is evil. How do we know what they are; that is if they really exist? One must first try to define what good and evil are before attempting to question their existence.
What is good? Is it the selfless act of a volunteer at a homeless shelter or an honest and truthful
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His actions were good, not just because they were intended to be good for the whole society, but because society viewed them as being for the good.
Good must also be addressed in terms not related to human actions. In the eyes of our society, a flower would be undoubtedly considered good, or a symbol of good. However, there is nothing in a flower that makes it good, other than its ability to be pleasing to society. The flower does not have the ability to make an overt decision to cause evil; therefore we view it as being good. Of course, Webster's dictionary doesn't quite cover this concept of good and tends to cause some confusion when addressing it.
So, what is evil? Is it Hitler's near annihilation of the Jewish people during World War II or the senseless massacre at Ti'enneman Square on mainland China? Again we turn to Webster's dictionary, which states evil as causing distress or harm, a source of sorrow, and the fact of suffering, misfortune, and wrongdoing. (Merriam-Webster) Evil would be any intention to cause an undesirable effect upon one's self or on another person. So by saying that the intentions of a person are not to cause good we automatically assume that they are out to cause evil.
For instance, religious and political leaders of Dr. Martin Luther King's time resisted all efforts on his part toward equality because he would be attempting to change an accepted way of life. King
According to Nietzsche, the right and wrong (good and bad, good and EVIL) are just a type of the concept. Nietzsche explains that from the beginning in his first argument that the “good” did not originate among those to whom goodness was shown. It explains that the trait of “good” was really a trait as we know it today, it was actually people who were good themselves, which is Aristocratic who are powerful, high minded and high class people who controls the class below them and also politics in some cases. This was the concept that defined what right and wrongs were because it cleared things out that good was really a trait but the people who were powerful and high class in society, unlike bad which was completely opposite. But over the time
Man is good, but man is also bad. Good doesn’t override the bad and bad doesn’t override the good. You can not have light without darkness or darkness without light. It is the same with the good and bad sides of man. One can not exist without the other. The goodness of man should outweigh the bad but that is impossible. The true nature of man is good but that good can be easily tainted throughout life. The little acts of kindness throughout the world keep the evil at bay. Good and evil are at a balance but whether the true nature of man is ultimately good or ultimately bad comes down to each individual
When I think of the concept of “evil,” I think of The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. In The Consolation of Philosophy, Lady Philosophy stated:
The reason that we even have an experience of a perceived evil is because for the soul to experience itself as any particular thing, the exact opposite of that thing must come into the realm of existence. In other words, in this relative existence, hot cannot be hot without cold, darkness cannot be without light, and you cannot be you without that which is not you. So I believe that what we call evil is just the opposite end of the spectrum of good, not something separate.
By definition, evil is an act or feeling that is “profoundly immoral and malevolent”. The problem is that evil is a subjective term. Each person sees evil differently.
How does one characterize good and evil? Throughout time, people have asked this question and only received opinions based on references from
Evil doesn 't necessarily have to be an action by a human; it can also be a result of a natural disaster such as: hurricanes, earthquakes, illness, etc. A hurricane can take away everything from thousands of humans. This causes the people to have no home, clothes, or food. This is also a form of evil, due to the suffering it causes. This is called natural evil. People can bring about moral evil upon themselves, although, they rarely can bring natural evil upon themselves. There is a distinct difference between the two, and one evil does not cause the other. The reason I point the
We are living in a society in which that any social norm can be questioned by anyone, and as the more questions that we have, the more of new arguments and thoughts come to us. One of the questions that has repeatedly been asked throughout humanity for years, is that are humans naturally good or bad? Clearly, the main purpose of this is to understand the nature of human beings. Obviously, it has been proven and debated by many philosophers, and also separated with two different sides. One argued that we have a basically good nature, but it is gradually corrupted by society, and the other one was, we have a basically bad nature that is kept in check by society. And this is when the ideas of good and bad were created.
evil creates or brings good. Yet, if there was only good we would not have to
Now let us discuss the counterpart to good; can anything be inherently evil? Again, Nietzsche would say that nothing is inherently evil, because good and evil are one in the same, however I once again beg to differ. I believe that the absence of love is the only truly evil thing in existence. When we forget to love one another,
Being good or doing good things leads to many things, but in order to give a clearer definition, one must understand what it is that these good actions created. Once one understands this, then the individual can clearly see the logic behind what some would consider an evil action. Over time, humankind has strived to become what they believed to be holy pure or good. This attempt at being what is virtuous has given birth to a set code of conduct or thoughts that are now commonly seen as the right thing. This code of conduct was based upon morals, which are any given individuals thoughts and believes on what is acceptable as good and evil. Due to the fact that mankind also strives to be accepted by there peers, a common set of morals was established and agreed upon by any specific generation of people to be the good thing. Understanding and knowing these the morals of these given times in history will be necessary to understanding how to define evil.
So what is good versus evil? Today we define good and evil as wrong and right. But how does one know what is wrong and what is right? The concept doesn't make sense. Some people are just meant to do good and there are some that are just meant to do evil. Both outweighing the other in a top shelf truly battle. Everyone, at least once in their lifetime, has heard a good verses evil story. Whether it was a prince slaying the dragon or even someone standing up for a bully. But what does good mean when we live in a world full of evil, or of people who want to
True good depends on the motives behind the act perceived as good. An act that is unselfish and motivated primarily by the concern of others is pure good. When one puts aside their own self to deliver the act, then it can be considered good. Conversely, when a good act is carried out with a self-benefitting mind set, it is not truly good because if it were
Good and bad seem like two simple terms, but to be able to break them down for discussion, or further, to do a research, they may bring to us tons of different thoughts, and sometimes those thoughts would oppose to each other. In order to fully understand the goodness and badness of human being, I would like to start with talking about the understanding of one’s self. Each individual on this universe is very unique, which is why the definition of “self” for each person is also different. Someone may define them as a good person, others may not. Someone may define them as positive and open, others choose to say it is negative and passive. The meaning of “self” is complicated, and there is no absolute right or wrong answer for that. The most important thing here is, each of us must aware of the importance of understanding ourselves, and be able to define that well, either in our own words or using other sources. As Socrates’s most famous quote has stated: “Know thyself”, means that the most basic thing in this life is you must “know” yourself well, must know what you really are, and what defines you the best. Self-knowledge is practically impossible to attain, since we were born
Evil is not the opposite of good. Mr. McNeeley said,”Goodness is the ultimate reality in the sense that through God, it is pre-existed everything else. Evil is perversion of God’s goodness and rebellion against a good God.” Nothing can compare to goodness because goodness is only attainable to God. In Matthew 19:17 he explains, “And He said to him, "Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." People can not be good because if we were good, we would not have the intention to sin. We are born into sin, but Jesus was begotten by the Father . Begotten means “created” or