Let’s say that evil is the absence of good. — Brett
I think that’s just relativist thinking, it doesn’t help me at all. — Brett
Those are actions of free will, maybe imbedded in culture over time but not inherent in us, they’re learned. You can break those civilities any time you want. — Brett
You can break anger responses any time you want too. — Isaac
You can break anger responses any time you want too. — Isaac
Sure, but that is too simple. A perceived bad act by one may not be perceived as bad by another. A perceived bad act can cause a perceived bad act by another, which to yet another might be perceived as justice. — Noah Te Stroete
I don’t think it means that. We have the tendency to be angry but we can chose to override it. — Brett
For simplicity's sake, lets call good actions those which bring happiness, evil actions which take it away, and neutral actions those that do not affect our happiness. — Tzeentch
If who's to say what is good, then who's to say what is evil?
I'm not sure that's the best interpretation of that story, but that's a separate topic entirely.Who’s to say what is good? I’m thinking of the old Taoist parable. Also the story of Adam and Eve who thought they could gain such knowledge by eating the forbidden fruit (knowing better than God).
I was planning on reading up on the laws and rules of war, just as Just War Theory hypothetically, had the Allies assinated him, i t wouldn't have been "murder" or killing in cold blood.Would it have been bad to kill Hitler in cold blood? Perhaps you might argue that’s murder. Perhaps you would call it justifiable homicide. Perhaps someone more evil than the murdered Hitler had hypnotized the Germans during their time of runaway inflation caused by the winners of the First World War.
True, but I'd argue that, much as a person with 20/20 vision as opposed to one with 20/200 vision, that there are objectively better ways of discerning what is good or bad.My point is that people have differing views on what is good and what is bad.
But you're saying that the statement "there are no absolutes" is an absolute.Also that there are no absolutes.
Even then, you're inferring that "polluting the ocean" is "bad" in some absolute sense, if there are 'no absolutes' (other than, ironically, the 'absolute' that there are no absolutes), you can't even say that polluting the ocean is "wrong" in any inherent sense to begin with.Perhaps you think you’re generally a good person. I doubt the world’s dolphins swimming through the pollution and plastic you’ve contributed to would think so.
I would argue no on that one, as far as courts of law and the moral philosophy they're based on is concerned.I meant to kill Hitler before the concentration camps or even before he took power.
But here you're arguing that the statement "it's all about perception" is an absolute independent of perception (or else, then the statement "it's all about perception" is a matter of perception as well).My point is that it’s all about perception. Certainly I have views about what is good and what is bad, as the dolphins probably do. Mine differ from theirs, however, I’m sure.
But you said it's about perception, so then blowing up the world with nuclear bombs isn't immediately "wrong" to begin with, yet you seem to be inferring that it is so.Also, you continue to misunderstand me. If, for example, this turned out to be the best of all possible worlds where in others the Nazis blew up the world with nuclear bombs, would this world not be good compared to the others?
I understand that, but that's just a matter of comparison, and doesn't attempt to substantiate what things contribute to either situation to make it 'good' or 'bad' for the percipients.I think my life is bad, but to someone living in Haiti it is probably very good looking from their perspecti
For example, even if a man losing his finger isn't "as bad" as losing he entire right arm, but would be different degrees of injury or loss, and there would be similarities between the two of them which could be compared and contrasted. — IvoryBlackBishop
Furthermore, I believe that Hitler was evil. As certainly the Jews do. Did the Nazis know they were evil?
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↪Noah Te Stroete
Fair enough then, so "to the Nazis", putting Jews in gas chambers was "good", who's to say there was anything wrong in that perception? — IvoryBlackBishop
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