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Good and Evil

Talk about judging a book by its cover...

At least give his TED talk a look.

Not its cover, but its message. He, or his agent, want to sell books to people that want a confirmation that they are "good", whatever they believe in or whoever they vote for. That's just intentional misuse of psychology as an academic discipline.

I was going to ask about TED... if he's there I'll certainly check him out. Thanks for the pointer :)
 
As a rule I agree with you but here we part company.I have done things I regret and things that were wrong but I never intentionally set out to hurt somebody, in my mind that is what evil is.

In my mind, evil is quite a different concept altogether, and is born of ignorance and/or an overly inflated sense of personal importance. I don't think one has to intentionally do something bad, in order for it to quality as evil. In fact, there are people who rationalize their actions, to the point of believing they are doing the "right" thing, when it requires destructive or *bad* things to accomplish their goals. Iow, the end justifies the means.
 
There is no "good" and "evil". There is only our evolutionary imperative to survive and reproduce which we are slaves to. We can no more reprogram ourselves than computers can.
 
As you said they are subjective and with much personal bias usually. I have never labeled anyone I have known or met as evil, bad yes. To me evil is pure and has no mercy. I have not met anyone like that.

Good is also pure. I have met a couple of people I would call good but not many.
Ditto.

People imagine themselves as being good, simply because they aren't evil. Truth is, the overwhelming majority will never be either. A Jesus or a Hitler doesn't come along that often.
 
A villain is never a villain in his own eyes. He always has a rationalization for his evil deeds. That does not make them not-evil.

I've had the displeasure of knowing criminals who would consider tying up a family and making Papa watch while his wife and children are raped, tortured and murdered to be a fine evening's entertainment and a suitable "revenge" against society for imagined collective wrongs... these people are missing something in their soul. I feel no scruple against calling them evil: they are.
No. They're almost exclusively disturbed. That's pathology, not Evil.

Evil doesn't necessitate cruelty, or even physical harm. If it did, then every schoolyard bully would be the embodiment of it. Evil need only hate. Like Good, Evil is a quality unto itself. One that requires no audience to sustain itself.
 
If you watch the video, with sound, of the Muslims sawing off Nicholas Berg's head, you will have no trouble concluding that they are truly evil.
Or Islamists.

Slight difference.
 
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