The line between good and evil runs not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart .” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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I disagree.
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Tension is needed in a variety of cases, not only to let an arrow fly, but also to make music on an instrument.
We are neither weapons nor instrumentals, plus… that is a different kind of tension, must we emulate it?
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Not everything we see/hear, we must do.
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Opposites play a significant role in human discourse, contributing to the richness and complexity of communication and thought.
…an example of that being?
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I benefit little, from that endeavour…
For related discussion:
I agree. When we look at good and evil being the absence of it, is good rooted in wisdom and if so, the absence of wisdom results in evil.
Can one be both wise and evil? The absence of wisdom is what causes evil in my eyes.
I suppose it depends on what you are reading, but almost all sources have the balance of good and evil, with the good having a slight advantage – unless it is a tragedy. Evil plays a crucial role in the Hero’s Journey by serving as the primary antagonist or obstacle that the hero must overcome. Without evil or conflict, there would be no tension, and the journey would lack depth and meaning.
Antagonism evokes strong emotions from both the characters and the audience. Whether it’s fear, anger, or despair, the presence of evil intensifies the story’s emotional impact. It keeps the audience invested in the hero’s journey, rooting for their success, and feeling the highs and lows of their experiences.
It wasn’t so much a call to emulate it but a metaphor for the natural tension that allows a result. Even our bodies have antagonistic elements, particularly in the context of biological systems and physiological processes. One of the most well-known examples of this antagonistic relationship is the interaction between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
These two systems often work in opposition to maintaining homeostasis or the body’s internal balance. For example, when the sympathetic nervous system is activated during a stressful situation, the parasympathetic system restores balance once the threat has passed.
I think you do benefit. You just don’t see it connected to what we are talking about.
Opposites provide a sense of balance and harmony. Just as in the examples of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems or the insulin and glucagon hormones, the interplay between opposing forces helps maintain equilibrium within our bodies and minds. Think about physical exercise, when we push or pull against a weight that effectively opposes us or exercise our bodies outside our comfort zone.
But contrasts also create opportunities for growth and learning. We often learn and grow the most when faced with challenges or situations different from what we’re accustomed to. These contrasts push us out of our comfort zones and compel us to adapt, evolve, and develop new skills and perspectives. Facing opposites builds resilience and strength. Overcoming adversity or navigating conflicting situations can strengthen our character, resolve, and emotional resilience. These experiences teach us valuable lessons about perseverance, adaptability, and problem-solving.
Opposites add depth and complexity to our experiences. Life is rarely black and white; instead, it’s filled with shades of grey and a multitude of contradictions. Exploring these contradictions and embracing the complexity of human existence allows us to better understand ourselves, others, and the world around us.
I suppose it depends on what you are reading, but almost all sources have the balance of good and evil, with the good having a slight advantage – unless it is a tragedy. Evil plays a crucial role in the Hero’s Journey by serving as the primary antagonist or obstacle that the hero must overcome. Without evil or conflict, there would be no tension, and the journey would lack depth and meaning.
A demonic monster raping and eating raw babies is necessary because it keeps things interesting and provides a bad guy to hate on which is necessary because we need our opposites.
Is evil not based out of ignorance?
Sometimes evil will come as a result of ignorance although not necessarily intentional.
There is evil though that is based out of deliberate hatred, greed, love of power and the need to control. That is pure evil.
Evil came about as a result of the above and the fact that we abuse and misuse our free will.
One might say that it is a part of the world, the flesh and the devil, selfishness, moral laziness…
Do I see evil as being necessary in this world? No.
I suppose that as long as that perspective remains - that it is necessary - we will not do much about it. What we see and believe, we create or at the very least, we do not attempt to destroy.
Evil may not be ‘necessary’ but it sure is inevitable.
If it were inevitable it couldn’t exist.
If something is inevitable, it must exist. Therefore it is necessary.
If we are only responsible for what we freely choose, evil must be a choice (does not mean we are doomed to choose it—means it has to be a “viable” option), which it isn’t, if it is inevitable/necessary. The statement defeats itself. Either you’re not free, or you’re free to choose (or reject) that which violates (or respects) recognized self=other. … An option which (if you choose it) is faux freedom, because true freedom (true viability) acknowledges (chooses) self=other.
So there is probably some equivocating on necessary/inevitable, or freedom/deciding (& probably evil) … & def on viability (whether or not we have choiceS…weird that we can SAY that, if we have no free will to even conceive of optionality).
“It just happened” — when said about “falling” in love — is bad faith. You said yes to impulses encouraging you and no to impulses discouraging you all along the approach. Soon enough, the encouraging impulses were selectively heard so loudly you couldn’t hear the others. Rising into love is better. It acknowledges all the impulses, but rules/orders them according to self=other.
Yes the concept of ‘evil’ obscures and makes difficult any comprehensive approach to solving that which we are engaged in experiencing and calling ‘evil’ becuz it makes the matter metaethical. It associates the fundamental problem - that of physical pain - with ‘wrongness’ in a moral sense, in a religious sense, and in doing so opens the doors for conflicting prescriptive philosophies and religions to do battle.
That being the case, the only way to avoid all that is to approach the problem, which is pain, not evil, in the same way one would attempt to devise a hedonic calculus to describe how society should be arranged… in such a way that pleasure and health is maximal and suffering and sickness is minimal. But becuz this cannot ever be a science (too many unknowns, variables, anomalies), the approach should be simplified and generalized. And u know what imma say next. People spend most of their time at a job or at home. Ergo, ways to maximize pleasure and minimize pain in these areas should be the focus. Ergo, a philosophy and/or theory that advocates giving the most amount of power and control to those who labor and live daily, so that they may minimize their suffering (incidentally which consists largely of excessive laboring with little unequal returns) and maximize their pleasure, is the one the vast majority of peoples want (but don’t know becuz they dumb).
None of this involves talk of ‘evil’. If a muhfucka kilt somebody, we’ont waste time tryna convince a jury or judge that what he did was ‘evil’, or that he ‘knew right from wrong’ and that he is ‘responsible’. What we do is carefully examine the life and the fellow and infer from events and experiences in his life that he would logically, causally, come to believe what he does without a choice to (see FD Pant’s doxastic belief seminar) and therefore not be able to conceive of what he did as ‘wrong’. Maybe illegal, sure, but illegal isn’t necessarily equivalent to ‘wrong’ in the sense being implied, either.
Holy shit i thought i was at PN forum. Lol and lol. FD Pants is a poster over there.
cuz o the pain/pleasure at home/work calculus, y’see…
Are you a nice bugs bunny or zombie bugs bunny?
@promethean75 If I were to say “the changes subsumed by Being who is Time are necessary for beings subject to Time to freely participate with/in “Being in Relation”…
…how could that be worded differently so that it does not conflict with (if indeed it does) this clarification:
?
Right. Evil is just a rhetorical shill we trot out to disprove the existence of God in the “problem of evil” argument.
…proof (of the Good) by disproof. Weird.
Based on the OP, evil as a category is based on a supernatural world view. From a natural standpoint, the polarity is good and bad, and that always relative to a particular point of view. There is no evil , or even any bad in an absolute sense.
Knowing the nature of evil is invaluable. Everyone should learn it.
Saying evil doesn’t exist is a foolish idea.
Knowing evil is as important as learning virtues.
In a no-evil world, everyone is safer, better, smarter, etc.