On Wednesday, January 2, 2013 9:11:07 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote: > > On 1/2/2013 5:24 PM, Craig Weinberg wrote: > > > > On Wednesday, January 2, 2013 6:21:27 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote: >> >> On 1/2/2013 2:24 PM, Craig Weinberg wrote: >> >> That really has nothing to do with Evil though, except in sloppy >> reasoning. True Evil is about intentionally initiating social harm. Getting >> smallpox is not evil, it is just unfortunate. Giving someone blankets known >> to be infected with smallp >> >> >> On the contrary it is sloppy ethics to confine 'evil' to intentional >> social harm. First, it implies that socially bad is bad simpliciter, but >> values are ultimately personal values. >> > > Speaking of sloppy. I'm not sure what that was intended to say. Without > some explanation of why you say that evil is other than intentional social > harm, it sounds like you are just saying that you disagree. > > >> Second, it implies that as soon as we find a physical cause (he was >> drunk, he had YY chromosmes, his father beat him) for a behavior it's not >> longer evil. >> > > It implies that only to those who think that personal intention is not a > physical cause in its own right. Just because someone was drunk when they > commit an evil act doesn't mean that it wasn't an evil act. > > > >> But all behavior has a physical cause. >> > > All physics is an experiential effect. > > >> So I'm ok with just dropping the term 'evil' and just referring to >> good/bad for individuals and good/bad for society as derivative. But I >> think it's a hangover from theodicy to refer to human actions as evil but >> not natural events - it's part of the idea that humans are apart from >> nature. >> > > I agree that dropping the term 'evil' as a formal term is the more > enlightened way to go. I don't have a problem with it as an informal > hyperbole that is reserved for intentionally cruel behavior though. I think > that we can separate intentional human cruelty as a class of attitudes and > effects unlike any other, though I would not apply any supernatural > significance. > > I would say that there is a hidden hypocrisy in allowing no expectation of > self control on the part of individuals > > > Where did anyone express that expectation? >
I thought that by saying "it's a hangover from theodicy to refer to human actions as evil but not natural events" you were implying that individuals should be held to a standard no different from the rest of nature. > while taking it for granted that exactly that kind of moral control is > to be expected from a law enforcing society composed of those same > individuals. If it's not evil for an axe murderer to execute people at > random, how can it be evil for a society to call that person evil and seek > to execute them? > > > You don't have to call them evil, just guilty. > I agree, but I think that it makes people feel human to project super-significance above them and below them. It makes people feel secure that their own actions are within the normal range if transgressors are monsters or saints. > > Brent > > If we want to be humane toward outlaws that's fine, but I don't think > that we should do it out of the assumption that human behaviors are under > no more human control than storms and earthquakes. > > Craig > > >> Brent >> Ethics is, at bottom, the art of recommending to others the >> self-sacrifice necessary to cooperate with ourselves. >> --- Bertrand Russell >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/everything-list/-/-RFrHbTbweoJ. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<javascript:> > . > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] <javascript:>. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2013.0.2805 / Virus Database: 2637/6002 - Release Date: 01/01/13 > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/everything-list/-/-JO6IR4OG-YJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
