good and evil

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LooF
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good and evil

Post by LooF »

does true good or true evil exist?

i think not
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Matt Gregory
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Post by Matt Gregory »

I think it depends on how you mean "true". I think someone can value something and "true good" can be determined in relation to that value. Like if you value your health it would be "truly good" to eat healthy food instead of junk food.

Beyond that, I don't think there is such thing as true good or true evil.
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Katy
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Post by Katy »

I don't think so. Everyone has good and bad aspects ot them. Actions have effects that we don't see and are most often both, also.
-Katy
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Trevor Salyzyn
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Post by Trevor Salyzyn »

I assume by "true good" and "true evil", you mean facts about the nature of reality which can be used as the basis of an absolutely certain ethical system. In this case, it is a definite No. All ethical systems require normative values to establish any judgements as to good, bad, and evil.

Normative values are assumptions as to what is correct behaviour, and being assumptions are not proven in any strict sense (truth and falsity have no bearing on them).

However, I would hazard that one could consider "wisdom" as a necessary and fundamental normative value... unless we know what is true, we cannot make any meaningful ethical system.
pepper
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Re: good and evil

Post by pepper »

[quote="LooF"]does true good or true evil exist?

i think not[/quote]

No, I also think not. Reasonable is my favourite slippery word. I think good and evil exist in actions, but you have to pin reasonble down to something solid and that can be a hard thing to do. People can be so damn argumentative, pedantic and plain unreasonable sometimes.
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Jamesh
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Post by Jamesh »

Absolutely. Individually we are always the only one's that count.

In a non-deluded mind, true good is whatever benefits you in some manner over the longer term.

True evil is whatever harms you, again over the longer term.

Often it is good in the short term to experience evil.

"Benefits" and "harms" are also just words like good and evil. In the end all these words are fairly meaningless. They describe subjective emotional impacts, and no one else cares about another individuals emotions, only their own, even if they are the type that finds more emotional value in helping others.
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Kelly Jones
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Post by Kelly Jones »

Jim, what are "subjective emotional impacts" ?

And why do you think the mind free of attachment experiences them ---- in any "term" ?
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