Categories
- Art (356)
- Other (3,632)
- Philosophy (2,814)
- Psychology (4,018)
- Society (1,010)
Recent Questions
- Why did everyone start to hate the Russians if the U.S. did the same thing in Afghanistan, Iraq?
- What needs to be corrected in the management of Russia first?
- Why did Blaise Pascal become a religious man at the end of his life?
- How do I know if a guy likes you?
- When they say "one generation", how many do they mean?
To distinguish good from evil, ask yourself the following question::
“Is it Good or Evil for you personally at this point in time?”
Good and Evil are subjective evaluative concepts. In other words, they exist only for a specific person and at a specific time.
If you now rate your actions as Good, then this is good only for you. For the person who is standing next to you, this can be evil.
I like the example-a story from one of the training sessions :
“- Helping an old lady who asks for money near the store is good?
Yes, she has few opportunities to support herself right now.
And if you know that she buys vodka for this money for the son of an alcoholic?
Then it's bad.
And if you know that this Son, when he drinks, writes brilliant poems, and until he gets alcohol, falls into depression and wants to commit suicide?
Well, that's good, then. You've completely confused me…”
This passage shows that only everyone can evaluate good or evil for themselves.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Good and evil are spiritual concepts and can only be fully evaluated from a religious perspective. Morals, ethics, philosophy, psychology try to answer this question, but everything is superficial, and sometimes false. Here there is no subjectivity and nothing third or middle: only black and white, only either good or evil.
“The little son came to his father ….what is good and what is bad.” Mayakovsky, of course, considered this from a moral point of view for a child, and this is enough for him, because morality itself is taken from religion. But it often happens that adults, experienced people can not distinguish between good and evil. (And then they see the way out in subjectivity and relativity.)
Moreover, it is very dependent on the morality and degree of licentiousness and permissiveness of society. This has happened more than once in civilization. As soon as promiscuity develops, this form of mass consciousness obscures the eyes of even the most inquisitive people. Many civilizations perished from this – for example, the Roman Empire fell. Now, for example, a lot of similar things are happening. Pseudo-humanism, tolerance, the same permissiveness, the concept of the meaning of life as a consumer, etc. views of the world simply do not allow a person to distinguish, draw a sharp line between good and evil.
The concept of insanity in the Bible considers a person not as insane, but with a false assessment of the situation, what is happening around them, their attitude to themselves, people, society, and God. The mad man looks through the lens of accepted doctrines, ideologies, and concepts of life. Philosophers are also involved here in order to root lies. Take Nietzsche for example – so everyone knows how he ended up. Or even steeper Marxism-Leninism. What are stupid people? No crazy and well-intentioned ones.
Good and evil are absolutely polar. The Bible says that people who lose God, their inner spiritual core, will mostly become even more insane at the end of time and will not be able to distinguish between good and evil at all.
Now even closer to the topic. Thus the gospel says: (Galatians)
14 For the whole law is contained in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
15 But if you bite and eat one another, take heed that you are not destroyed by one another.
16 I say, Walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh,
17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit desires what is contrary to the flesh.
18 But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The works of the flesh are known; they are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, strife, strife, envy, anger, strife, dissension ,heresies,
21 hatred, murder, drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do this will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, mercy, faith,
23 meekness, self-control. There is no law on such people.”
They are distinguished not only by the mind, but it is also embedded in the heart of every person from birth: honesty, sincerity in front of yourself and conscience will always distinguish good from evil.
Difficult. But usually a few simple rules are enough. For example, listen to your conscience, remember religious precepts, stick to the golden mean, treat people the way you would like them to treat you.
The ability to distinguish good from evil is inherent in nature in the norm. And if you have doubts, you should go to a psychologist and try to define your own boundaries together with him.
“Love your neighbor as yourself” is the main formula. The point is to think about others, not just yourself. This is good. And no one is immune from mistakes, and it is not always possible to predict the consequences of actions. Good or evil is the desire that a person puts into his action, and not the action itself.
To put it even more simply, everything revolves around the ego. If your ego is more important than someone else's, that's evil. If someone else's is more important than your own-good.
Omniscience is an attribute of the one God. Mortals, on the other hand, cannot foresee the consequences of our decisions.
We foresee only the immediate consequences, and even then – vaguely, incorrectly.
For us, evil and good are subjective, it is simply choosing the best for the intelligent, and then – for the living from the possibilities we foresee.
Evil begins with indifference to the consequences for others. This is followed by a bet on Chaos. In methods and goals. “First get into a fight…” (c) Vovan-The First Ghoul, the Undead…
There are many opinions. What does this mean? Is it that we simply don't know what good and evil are? Or that we are completely confused about this issue? Or that good and evil are just words that don't have anything behind them at all? No way! When it comes to everyday life rather than the theory of good and evil, it turns out that we all know pretty well what it is.
For example, no one will attribute to the good such qualities of a person as deceit, greed, rudeness, cruelty. Or acts such as betrayal, flattery, bullying, or torture. No one can attribute such phenomena as crime, drug addiction, destruction of nature, and epidemics to the good. But everyone will readily agree that this refers to evil.
And in the same way, no one will attribute to evil, for example, education, health protection and treatment of the sick, growing bread, building housing. Or such qualities of a person as empathy, loyalty, honesty, conscientiousness. Or such phenomena as selfless help, true love, strong friendship. But everyone readily admits that this applies to the good.
No, there are probably some people who have everything turned upside down in their heads, and who understand everything the other way around. They can argue about the relativity of all these concepts, that everything depends on the point of view. They say that if they are rude to me — it is evil, and if I am rude, it is good. If they sympathize with me — it is good, and if I sympathize, it is evil. If an epidemic is raging in a neighboring country, it is good, and if it is in my country, it is evil. If education is well developed in another country, it is evil, and if in my country, it is good. But there will be a clear minority of such people.
The rest of us will easily agree that everything that we have classified as good is necessary for everyone, does not interfere with anyone, the more it is, the better. That is, there are all the signs of true, objective good.
And the fact that we have classified as evil is not necessary for anyone, interferes with all normal people, and no one would be upset about its disappearance. And here are all the signs of real, objective evil.
Moreover, there is no reason for these concepts to change their sign over time: from plus to minus or from minus to plus. Today's good was good yesterday and will be good tomorrow. And evil, too, has always been and will always remain evil.
Here is an interesting paradox. Complete confusion in theory with a fairly clear understanding of the truth in experience, in practice.
However, we must somehow generalize this experience of ours. It is necessary to somehow theoretically define good and evil. And so that it does not contradict our everyday experience, our practical ideas about life. The question may arise: “Why is this necessary, if everything is already clear?” Very simply: so that we can understand not only the obvious concepts, but also all the others. To make it easier for us to navigate in all situations, in all areas of life, so that we do not confuse good and evil.
Let's try to go the simplest way and look at dictionaries and encyclopedias, which are considered to summarize the experience of smart, learned people. And what does it say? Something like this: “Good is a general concept of moral consciousness, a category of ethics that characterizes positive moral values.” This is from Wikipedia. And evil is the opposite of good.
So, we are assured that good is a concept from the realm of consciousness. And it refers to ethics, and the word “ethics”, as you know, comes from the Greek “ethos”, that is, “disposition, custom”. This leads to two conclusions. First, good and evil are changeable, like our consciousness. Second: it's just an agreement between people, a habit, a custom.