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robertsnj · 56-60, M
I don't mean to go sideways on your question but I think that thinking in absolutes like good and evil isn't a strong way to understand the world we live in.
We don't have a context in this specific question but if you interchanged good and evil with altruism and self centerness / greed you probably could get a better yield to most questions with a few more variables added in.
What makes, to use your terms, good and evil, shades of gray in the real world, as opposed to the black-and-white inherent to the term itself is the variable that we live in a world of finite resources. Those resources can be money, land or even someone's affection we end up with layers of complexitity. Even our lifspan is finite with a begining point and a ending point
When you add in durations of effect , numbers affected (1 vs many) and consequences of inaction (which is the action of no action) the like it can get even more gray .
I always liked utilitarian idea of greatest happiness principle but even that idea needs more layers to be comprehensive.
To not dodge your question completely, I think good and evil is an idea of absolutes mostly promoted by religion whose natural inclnation is to produce two groups of us and them Beyond that it is essentially a meaningless, useless term used in tongue and cheek conversation as opposed to any level of actual introspection.
We don't have a context in this specific question but if you interchanged good and evil with altruism and self centerness / greed you probably could get a better yield to most questions with a few more variables added in.
What makes, to use your terms, good and evil, shades of gray in the real world, as opposed to the black-and-white inherent to the term itself is the variable that we live in a world of finite resources. Those resources can be money, land or even someone's affection we end up with layers of complexitity. Even our lifspan is finite with a begining point and a ending point
When you add in durations of effect , numbers affected (1 vs many) and consequences of inaction (which is the action of no action) the like it can get even more gray .
I always liked utilitarian idea of greatest happiness principle but even that idea needs more layers to be comprehensive.
To not dodge your question completely, I think good and evil is an idea of absolutes mostly promoted by religion whose natural inclnation is to produce two groups of us and them Beyond that it is essentially a meaningless, useless term used in tongue and cheek conversation as opposed to any level of actual introspection.
Casheyane · 31-35, F
@robertsnj While I find that insightful, at the end of the day, you decide what to do when faced a difficult situation. At the end of the day, you make the choice of what counts as acceptable or not, of whether you go on the good or the bad.
So while trying to understand everything and being open is tempting, at the end of the day, we all have to make a choice on what principles we live by. And there might even be a handful of times when there isn't much room nor time for an in depth introspection.
So while trying to understand everything and being open is tempting, at the end of the day, we all have to make a choice on what principles we live by. And there might even be a handful of times when there isn't much room nor time for an in depth introspection.