Musing

[pyrephox]

LJ is, beyond any doubt, the wrong place to try to figure out the nature of mankind. The only answer it returns is: Situation Normal, All Fucked Up. That, and catgirl porn. BUT!

We are brave and tenacious explorers, and thus are not stopped by such petty concepts as 'sanity'. So, we look into the darkest heart of the virtual community (no, not the one where the fans write stories about Ian McKellan having his wicked way with a drugged Orlando Bloom while shouting, "Who's the king now, Viggo?!", but nice try) and ask: What is good and evil?

All kidding aside, I'm curious. If you're interested, leave a comment giving /your/ definition of 'good' and 'evil'.

Comments

[undauntra.livejournal.com]

The motivation of evil is taking pleasure in causing the suffering of others. Evil is allowing that motivation to guide your actions.

I define evil in terms of motivation, because any attempt at defining evil purely in terms of actions runs up against both extenuating circumstances and decision-making with imperfect knowledge. Thus far, my definition seems to have held up to what conundrums I can throw at it. However, it does allow for some truly horrific actions to be considered not-evil. To me, this is an uncomfortable but necessary consequence of refusing to label as evil those who make honest mistakes. I welcome your attempts to pick holes in my definition, so that I can improve it.

Good is far more difficult. If one simply goes with selflessness = good, then you arrive at the awkward ideal of each person making decisions with the intent to aid others - others whose needs and desires he will definitionally have less knowledge of than his own. Thus, you end up with an innefficient system where each persons needs are seen to by people who don't really know what those needs are. To take an absurd but illustrative case, it doesn't do me a lot of good for you to give me a plate of your favorite peanut-butter oatmeal cookies if I'm allergic to peanuts.

I suppose that the motivation of good would be to aid others. The effective application of good motives is much trickier, though. Things that occur to me as good actions are giving people enough data to make informed decisions rationally, keeping your word, refraining from causing unnecessary pain to others, helping people towards their expressed desires. However, this response is so scattershot as to not in the slightest be a definition.

[cpip.livejournal.com]

To me, this is an uncomfortable but necessary consequence of refusing to label as evil those who make honest mistakes

"Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity"?