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Trondor
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 Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:08 am Post subject: Evil |
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I smell the foul stench of corruption spreading across the board..
Ok, what is evil and why should anyone care?
Is evil just plain old sadism, aka taking pleasure in other peoples hurt, or is there more to it? Why does people become sadist's anyway?
Socrates said that ignorance is the source of evil, was he right? Is it fear that make people do malice?
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Thrusthamster
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:09 am Post subject: |
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I think there are several types of evil, and you have metioned two of them. 
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nonentropic
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:11 am Post subject: |
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love of money and power seems to encompass most human evil...plus, other human weaknesses/flaws...toward destruction. evil is actually a very fucked thing to seek, desire and become. yeah, i'm against it as much as i can be against anything.
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RadicalDreamer
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:12 am Post subject: |
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I think ignorance, choice, or handicap.
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ohifwinterends
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:15 am Post subject: |
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Humans, as a species, can only be separated from the animals by their depth of emotion and ability to feel others' pain...so when someone is truly evil, totally without compassion and the ability to feel remorse...I'm sorry, but...I no longer see them as a human and more like an animal.
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Zephr
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:59 am Post subject: |
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| ohifwinterends wrote: | | Humans, as a species, can only be separated from the animals by their depth of emotion and ability to feel others' pain...so when someone is truly evil, totally without compassion and the ability to feel remorse...I'm sorry, but...I no longer see them as a human and more like an animal. |
I don't think that's true. I think what separates humans from other animals is our ability to use our logic and intelligence to overcome our animalistic emotional responses to a situation and do what's most beneficial over the long term.
Plus there's no logical reason to believe that our emotions are deeper than any advanced mammal. The regions of the brain associated with emotional response are quite sophisticated in dogs, for instance. It's our deductive reasoning that really stands out.
Anyway, in response to the original point of the thread, I don't see anybody doing anything particularly evil here. I really don't think there is much evil in the world at all. Most of the bad things that happen are because of people not thinking through the consequences of their actions. That's just laziness and incompetence, not evil.
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Rocky
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:10 am Post subject: |
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| Zephr wrote: | | ohifwinterends wrote: | | Humans, as a species, can only be separated from the animals by their depth of emotion and ability to feel others' pain...so when someone is truly evil, totally without compassion and the ability to feel remorse...I'm sorry, but...I no longer see them as a human and more like an animal. |
I don't think that's true. I think what separates humans from other animals is our ability to use our logic and intelligence to overcome our animalistic emotional responses to a situation and do what's most beneficial over the long term.
Plus there's no logical reason to believe that our emotions are deeper than any advanced mammal. The regions of the brain associated with emotional response are quite sophisticated in dogs, for instance. It's our deductive reasoning that really stands out. |
Oh noes!
"I think if you don't have some F than you're not human"..." Well no, if you don't have enough T than you're not human"... 
You're both wrong by the way. The only major difference that seperates us from every other animals is the ability to use language.
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chattegris
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:12 am Post subject: |
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| Rocky wrote: |
You're both wrong by the way. The only major difference that seperates us from every other animals is the ability to use language. |
I have to agree with you.
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RadicalDreamer
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:18 am Post subject: |
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| chattegris wrote: | | Rocky wrote: |
You're both wrong by the way. The only major difference that seperates us from every other animals is the ability to use language. |
I have to agree with you. |
Me too!
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Zephr
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:20 am Post subject: |
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But whales and dolphins have language. The thing that we have that created civilization is the ability to use tools to make better tools.
And anyway, having some F is important to being human. I'm not trying to say F is more important or better than T. I just think that it's something that other animals are better at than we give them credit for.
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RadicalDreamer
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chattegris
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:24 am Post subject: |
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| Zephr wrote: | | But whales and dolphins have language. The thing that we have that created civilization is the ability to use tools to make better tools. |
Use of tools is another important aspect of our evolution. The opposable finger was definitely a great help.
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Zephr
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:28 am Post subject: |
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| RadicalDreamer wrote: | | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtmLVP0HvDg |
It's true that we aren't the only species that can use tools. Lots of species can. But as far as I know, we're the only one that uses tools to make even more sophisticated tools that wouldn't otherwise be possible to make. Only humans have tools that are only used to make other, better tools.
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Trondor
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:19 am Post subject: |
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| Zephr wrote: |
Anyway, in response to the original point of the thread, I don't see anybody doing anything particularly evil here. I really don't think there is much evil in the world at all. Most of the bad things that happen are because of people not thinking through the consequences of their actions. That's just laziness and incompetence, not evil. |
So you generally agree with Socrates that evil is ignorance?
Oh, and we talked about the difference betwen animals and humans in my class the other day. Even longtherm thinking was ruled out, as there are examples of animals doing stuff that is benefical in the long term (like squirrels collecting nuts for winter). It all boiled down to the conciousness/instinct thingy, but no one really could come with a clear definition of instinct. What is instinct? What is the difference betwen thinking and instinct? What are human instincts?
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Thrusthamster
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:32 am Post subject: |
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Emotion doesn't make us special. Elephants and some other animals I can't remember have been known to mourn their dead, which show that we aren't the only animals that can feel sadness and maybe even love (which brings up the discussion about what love really is, if it's a strong sense of codependency or something more). For example survival instincts in animals, such the one you see when there's a loud noise or something startles them, is emotion. When something startles us, the same reaction happens. Even if we're in a safe environment like our home, and someone we know scares us by jumping out of a corner, we get startled even though it's not logical to do so. As far as I remember, the biological response that happens is that the image of the person jump out in front of us is sent to the centre which initiates the base survival instincts before it travelles to the centre which interpretes what the images are.
So, animals are capable of feeling emotions to the same degree as us and maybe even more, because it's what they need for survival. What seperates us is our ability to reason, which resulted in our ability to use language, among other things.
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