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Big Brother and online Hunger games.

Oedipus' Big Questions: Round 2 (Good & Evil)

Jan 26, 2023 by Oedipus
🪞🪞🪞OEDIPUS' BIG QUESTIONS🪞🪞🪞

Welcome back philosophers! It is time for your first elimination round!

🥊🥊🥊ROUND 2🥊🥊🥊
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😇Does pure good and evil exist?😈
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📕📕📕CONTEXT📕📕📕

Good and evil are usually discussed in conjunction with one another within the philosophy sphere. They are also the foundation for many religions and even social groups. One common disagreement on the topic of good and evil is whether it truly exists? Are there truly things in the world that are PURELY good and PURELY evil? Why or why not? I can't wait to read your thoughts.

🧩🧩🧩HOW TO ANSWER🧩🧩🧩

To answer the question, simply send your answer in the comment section (you can only send one comment... so don't send multiple otherwise I'll either ask you to combine them or choose one). You have until this blog expires to submit! Good luck philosophers and be careful, the bottom two answers will be nominated for elimination!!

🧠🧠🧠PHILOSOPHERS🧠🧠🧠:

🧠Karma ( KarmaSutra)
🧠Wolven ( Wolven6974)
🧠Jay ( teamclay)
🧠Mackey ( Mackey)
🧠Princess ( princesspretty)
🧠Johnny ( suit)
🧠Stranded (@Stranded)
🧠Andalarew ( andalarew_2231)
🧠Lifeiscool ( lifeiscool)
🧠Ryan ( Nanonerd)

Comments

Honestly I do not believe pure good exists however pure evil 100 percent does.

Pure good would indicate that the thing in question is nothing but selfless however everything wants what’s best for them. Even if it is a person who helps charity that doesn’t mean they don’t get some sort of satisfaction in doing so.

On the other hand pure evil defs exists. There are clear examples of pure evil out there. I would define pure evil as anything that intentionally does something horrible to someone or something else just for the reason of they can. They don’t even have to get any sort of gratification or reward from it. Just because they can.
Sent by andalarew_2231,Jan 26, 2023
This question does not have a simple answer. There could possibly be “good” and “evil” in the world, but all of our perspectives of “good” and “evil” are different. Not everyone has the same moral beliefs and values, therefore my definition of good and evil could be different than your version of good and evil.

We all have a moral compass that we more or less follow. We may use our moral values as guidelines for how we should think and act. Sometimes, we may intentionally break these values and feel guilty afterward. However, there are some people who knowingly break their own moral values (in other words, they know what they’re doing is wrong), and don’t feel the slightest sense of remorse for doing it. If “pure evil” does exist in this world, it world, it would be in the people who break their own moral beliefs without a second thought about it. However, “pure good” does not have a simple explanation.

We all may have a different idea of what someone who is “pure good” will look like. However, we all should know that no one is perfect. We all make mistakes, and that includes moral mistakes. The idea that there are people in the world who are morally perfect and never commit any actions that one would consider “bad” just isn’t realistic, especially when you take into account that we all hold different moral beliefs. However, what we should be thinking about when trying to determine whether “pure good” exists isn’t if a person is ultimately good or bad, but rather if they’re trying to become better today than they were yesterday. A person who is trying to become a better version of themselves (in a moral sense) not only has their own moral guidelines that they do their best to follow, but also attempts to morally learn from the people around them. We may also have moral figures that we may idolize and strive to be like, but it starts with bettering ourselves.

So to answer the question, someone who may possibly be “pure evil” is someone who commits immoral actions knowing that they are immoral with no remorse. However, someone who may possibly be “pure good” is someone who always strives to better themselves by thinking of the people in their lives.
Sent by NanoNerd,Jan 26, 2023
Good versus evil it’s a battle that has been waged since the beginning of time. All of us have an inherent ability to either be good or evil. Most of us are fluid when it comes to these two sides. Put us in a certain situation and we can be good, put us in an entirely different situation and maybe the need to  be evil manifests itself. But, are people inherently born good or evil?

I tend to lean toward an affirmative when it comes to answering this topic. I believe it is rare circumstances where someone can be born good or born evil, but it does occur.

As far as people who are inherently born good, I believe a lot of that boils down to religious beliefs. To me someone who was born good, is someone who is able to achieve sainthood. Oxford dictionary defines the word saint as someone who is acknowledged as holy or virtuous. Which again goes back to to religious aspect. One person who never achieved sainthood that I believe was born good, was Mother Theresa.

On the flip side, I’d say that 99.999% of people are never born evil, but their are a few exceptions to this. To me the most prime example of someone who was born evil was Adolf Hitler. I refuse to believe that he just woke up one day or had events in his life that lead to him leading the propaganda he did. I also feel only someone born evil could get thousands of people to blindly follow and execute all the atrocities of the Holocaust like he did.
Sent by KarmaSutra,Jan 27, 2023
Based on my answer to your last question, you would be onto something if you were to assume that I believe good and evil do not exist.

But this is far too sensitive of a topic for such a simple answer, and so I have to break this question down into objective and subjective components.  Objectively, as I said before, there is no rule book for life.  So there really isn’t any OBJECTIVE standard as to what’s good and what’s evil.  But that doesn’t mean nobody subjectively experiences good and evil, and that’s a very important distinction.

We live in a world with multiple ongoing & brutal civil wars (eg South Sudan broke out into an ethnically charged civil war soon after seceding from Sudan) and multiple ongoing and potential genocides unfolding.  Ask the Rohingya people of Burma whether evil exists and you’ll get an overwhelming “yes”.  In your own community, if you were to ask Jewish people whether the holocaust was evil and you’ll get an overwhelming “yes” (this is a hypothetical, I want to make it clear that you shouldn’t actually do this because the holocaust is understandably a very triggering topic for many Jewish people and it’s not something everyone wants to think about on any given day).

To blur the lines on this question further, there is a factual basis to feelings.  If you ask someone what emotion they’re feeling and they answer honestly “my emotion is terrified”, that’s a factually correct answer that would be backed up by empirical data if it was possible to measure it in that moment, because emotions correspond to physical and chemical changes in our brains.  “Facts not feelings” is therefore a nonsensical phrase, because as long as someone is honest about what they are feeling, that’s factual information.

So I would argue that, although good and evil objectively do not exist, this is one of the relatively rare situations where we need to essentially ignore the objective standard in favor of a subjective standard.  What helps me come to this conclusion is that there is factual information supporting the use of a subjective standard, as I explained above.  The reality is that happiness is, by any functional standard, a better emotion than despair. 

That means that the best theoretical scenario for humanity is that everyone feels happiness (pure good), and the worst theoretical scenario is that everyone feels despair (pure evil).  Although it’s not possible for every human being to feel that the world is devoid of evil because you can’t control for every individual human’s behavior (note that pure good and pure evil, the way I’ve defined them, are theoretical constructs), we want to tilt the world in a direction where we can get as close to the former scenario (universal happiness) as possible in a real world situation. 

And we need to stay aware of the presence of subjective evil as well.  People who prey on what I would argue are our ugliest instincts are really good at moving up through our institutions, because humans are not naturally peaceful animals.  It’s very easy for humans to fall back into violence, whereas it requires work for humans to make a positive impact on one another.  But this work is worth doing because emotions have a factual basis, which means that happiness has tangible value, so subjective good is worth pursuing.
Sent by suit,Jan 27, 2023
point blank and the period no it is impossible for pure evil and good to exist. nobody nor any living thing believes in one opinion so obsessively and completely they devote their entire life to it, ignoring the basic biological structure which gives humans and animals the abibility of happiness and sympathy. even hitler cared for his family, a man despied by generations and described as "diobolical" no matter if you're a neo-nazi or some left wing protest activist you still posess positive and negative traits. for example, i like to believe im a really kind and nice person but i'm still gonna have the thought of "wow that girl is really ugly" and it's not exactly my fault it's just how i am and that's how everybody is so no there is no pure good or evil.
Sent by princesspretty,Jan 27, 2023
NO. It is impossible.
If you are pure good, you aren’t. You’ve done a few bad things guaranteed.
If you are pure evil, you aren’t. You’ve done a few good things guaranteed.

You cannot devote yourself forever to simply being pure good or pure evil. Eventually you’ll do something of the opposite. I’ve noticed a lot of people want to be like their parents, however they would eventually change their mind on what they wanted to be.

However, people can be extremely evil and extremely good. Just not PURELY.

People change overtime and while it can seem like they are pure good or pure evil, they aren’t.

I found that adults tend to behave like their parents unless they try really hard not to. In the case of grandparents, I see a lot of the time that they abused their children, however they act very nice now that they are grandparents.

Pure good and pure evil cannot exist due to the nature of humanity. Change, is the nature of humanity.

Short answer: No. Pure evil and Pure Good cannot exist.
Sent by Stranded,Jan 27, 2023
Pure good and pure evil in my opinion exists within every living organism that inhabits the world, it’s just a question as to wether or not you make the decision to be good or to be evil. No body is born to be a super villain or a super hero. Whereas yes it may be seen that change is inevitable and everyone does it but there is a difference between a good change and a bad one.
Sent by teamclay,Jan 27, 2023
Apologies for taking a while, I have the memory of a fucking goldfish.

Pure good and evil don't exist, straight up. I more consider it a bell curve? Obviously there's absolutely horrible as well as absolutely good people who have existed, exist now and will exist in the future. But, good people are capable of absolutely horrible things and vice versa.

To elaborate on the "bell curve" part of my statement, It would be safe to say most people fall straight in the centre, as a bell curve would suggest. Slowly moving outwards and lowering in percentage and probability are the people you can more so say are "pure good" and "pure evil".
The main reason I believe everyone is in that centre is that well, everyone has their own moral compass, due to that moral compass most people myself included have lines they will not cross.

An example I'd say is getting into a fight. Would I recklessly start a physical fight? No, I'm not an asshole. Will I refuse to fight back if someone started a physical fight with me? No, I'm going to fight back for better or (most likely) for worse. I believe most people would fall into the same category as me. May not be the best example, but hey it's midnight for me and I really do be half asleep.

In the end, most people fall into the centre of good and evil. But it should be a fact no one will ever be truly pure good and truly pure evil. But some people will get real close.
Sent by Wolven6974,Jan 28, 2023
Pure Good is a complicated idea but I do believe things can be Purely evil. Purely evil can come across as things such as murder, theft or anything that is made to hurt someone or just overall morally wrong.  I think it all is based around morals. If you do something that goes against your morales than that is something that could very well be pure evil. When it comes to pure good it is way more hard to wrap my mind around since it makes you think. What is really something that is considered very good? What comes to mind is like, helping others but exactly what are you helping? So you see it is way more complicated. So there is a such thing as pure good and pure evil but it can only be determined by your morales.
Sent by Lifeiscool,Jan 31, 2023
Sorry for taking a while but here

Pure Good nearly doesn't exist. There's no way can be purely good, you can be extremely kind in general but everyone makes mistakes. Jesus Christ is the only person in the world he was pure good he did no wrong. I am Christian and this is my faith and what I believe.

On the one hand, there is no doubt they were writing about a real person. On the other, they are more concerned with the significance of Jesus’ life than the actual events of his life. His personality was way down the list in terms of importance.

Which is why it’s even more remarkable when his personality shines through. We se him sarcastic in the Sermon on the Mount; where he says if your hand or eye causes you to sin, cut it off (we have the same expressions today: I couldn’t keep my hands off of it; the problem isn’t your eye or hand, it’s the mind behind them).

He shows an extraordinary fondness for children in a time when children had much the same rights as slaves.

He was a non-violent revolutionary who had a passion for the destitute and oppressed.

We see him distressed at his coming execution.

He had a reputation as a great healer; he wasn’t the only one, and the public would have ignored him if it wasn’t true.

So, setting aside questions of divinity and soteriology, I would characterize him as a great man.

This is why Jesus Christ is Pure Good.

Now onto pure evil.

There is such a thing as Pure evil.

We human beings are inclined to think categorically and absolutely. But not all (or even most) categories are absolute. Is there such a thing as absolute goodness, with no error admixed? Yes, most assuredly. God is so, as are the saints He has perfected in Heaven. But is there such a thing as absolute evil, in which there is no admixture of goodness? St. Thomas Aquinas and others say that there is not.
Sent by Mackey,Jan 31, 2023

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