26
votes
Accepted
Is immorality just irrationality?
What you are describing is the Platonic view of good and evil, that no one does wrong willingly, but only out of ignorance. An unusually clear and explicit statement of this concept is found in Plato'...
16
votes
Accepted
Is God either immoral or not omnipotent?
I don't think this is an answer, but its a long series of comments. TLDR; there are many more considerations to the problem of evil than you seem to address.
You've missed a key element of Leibniz's ...
- 1,558
10
votes
Is God either immoral or not omnipotent?
Why not create a world with freedom of the will, but without suffering?
This seems to allow two possibilities:
No wrong choices are allowed.
Wrong choices do not cause suffering.
To assert 1. would ...
- 2,929
9
votes
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Trying to Understand Quote by Nietzsche
It's also important to remember that Nietzche's father was an ultra religious Christian and he would have no doubt been well familiar with Jesus' words from https://biblehub.com/matthew/26-52.htm "...
8
votes
Trying to Understand Quote by Nietzsche
It has to be read as poetic language. It's evocative, unsettling, and striking, rather than explicit.
Fighting monsters making a hero monstrous is not an uncommon trope, for instance it can be found ...
- 9,596
7
votes
Accepted
Would an all-powerful God still be all-powerful if they can never do evil?
Your puzzle turns on an ambiguity in the words 'can' and 'could'. In "God can do anything that is logically possible", we have the 'can' of ability. This is the same sense in which I can ride a ...
- 6,458
6
votes
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How might one counter Bertrand Russell's criticism of Stoicism as "not true" and "insincere"?
The natural rebuttal to Russell here is that he has misunderstood the Stoic understanding of Happiness. In choosing their actions and goods in a principle of "Rational decision in accordance with ...
- 5,138
6
votes
Would it be good if everyone was good?
Your conclusion relies on some absurd premises.
First, "our definition of being good is determined by distinction between good and evil" is a huge assumption you're making.
You're also operating ...
- 61
6
votes
Are there any philosophies that view the whole of everything as evil?
Xunzi is a confucianist that sees nature as evil. Since humans come from nature their inborn tendencies are evil. Xunzi states that humans without ethical norms or rituals will only attempt to satisfy ...
- 233
6
votes
Is immorality just irrationality?
Doesn't this then give the idea of a 'bad' person a different
implication - we wouldn't say the same to someone if they made a
mistake in math or in their finances yet people who are simply in
...
- 1,895
5
votes
Accepted
Using embryos in stem cell medicine
Embryos are a stage in development of human organisms.
To phrase the issue concisely: If something is X at the end of a time interval, then either it must become X during that interval, or else it ...
- 393
5
votes
Is God either immoral or not omnipotent?
The issue is you're approaching the problem in a different direction. The theodicy you lay out is derived from these premises:
God is moral, and logically cannot be the source of evil
Evil exists
...
- 1,236
5
votes
Accepted
is God good, or God is the good?
You are asking a very fundamental question. Its original formulation in the West was in Plato's dialogue Euthyphro in which Socrates asks Euthyphro:
Is the pious (τὸ ὅσιον) loved by the gods ...
- 7,191
5
votes
Is good the absence of evil or is it the other way round?
In the neo-Platonic tradition, from Plato, through Plotinus, and from there integrated into mainstream Christian and Islamic theology, good is the only true reality, and evil is just the absence of ...
5
votes
Is immorality just irrationality?
In English we often use the terms good and bad relative to an ideal. (In Spanish it is the same).
So we call a person a good person when some portion (Surly a majority but what percent I don't ...
- 171
5
votes
Accepted
What does it mean for something to be "evil"?
Todd Calder distinguishes between a broad concept of evil which would be any bad state of affairs resulting from either natural causes or moral agents and a narrow concept:
In contrast to the broad ...
- 19.1k
5
votes
How do we explain the brain's ability of thinking about non-materialistic concepts?
There's an implicit assumption in this question which can be challenged. Do we in fact understand good and evil - or, perhaps more accurately, what sort of thing is the "good/evil" ...
- 3,134
4
votes
Is it ethical to clear and clean the home of an extreme hoarder against his will?
Your question is essentially a variation on a debate in the autonomy literature. The question that arises there is the relationship between autonomy and free choices. The two examples most common in ...
- 24.3k
4
votes
Does the dueling notion of good and evil exist in non-Abrahamic (Eastern) philosophies as it does in the Western tradition?
I think the question is somewhat problematic in that there are many different views outside of the Abrahamic monotheisms which don't all sit well together as an "Eastern bloc." I cannot answer for the ...
- 24.3k
4
votes
Does the presence of free-will allow for the possibility of evil in a world with a benevolent God?
I would say that Alvin Plantinga's free will defense is perhaps the most philosophically rigorous defense that many agree defends the logical possibility of a good God which has created a world with ...
- 956
4
votes
Is immorality just irrationality?
Morality doesn't have anything to do with rationality.
I'm going to be Nietzsche's advocate and say that "good" and "bad" are just labels on what a given society wants. This is by no means absolute ...
- 141
4
votes
Is immorality just irrationality?
I've given this a lot of thought as a Christian who has studied the Bible a lot and generally agrees with your reasoning here, having found overlap between the two that seems accurate to me.
Here is ...
- 143
4
votes
Accepted
What happens when evil realizes it is evil?
Evil exists.
This only works when assuming that there are moral facts in some way. Whether those are absolute, relative, or subjective doesn't matter here. But if no moral facts exist then we can't ...
- 1,895
4
votes
What is a non-circular definition of evil?
Circular definition. The author freely uses terms like “harm,” “pain,” or “suffering” without defining those terms.
That isn't what circularity is, though. If we want to define all the terms we use ...
- 1,895
4
votes
Trying to Understand Quote by Nietzsche
The key word in the first sentence is "fights." When one fight, one often justifies one's actions by what it does to one's opponents. People who consider killing to be wrong are often willing to ...
- 17.2k
4
votes
Trying to Understand Quote by Nietzsche
think about your own demons and enemies. you do your best to push them to the side. but how far will you go? how long do you ponder a darker solution? where is the line you will go to?
the more ...
- 41
4
votes
Can any Christian action truly be morally good?
If any morally good action is not spontaneous, is it truly morally good?
I give to a certain charity in a regular basis - it's part of my written budget, and I have auto-pay set up with my bank for ...
3
votes
Does a covert reward destroy the moral value of a moral action?
A paradigmatic protagonist of considering the rewards is Kant. But to him it does not matter if you are rewarded, but if you are doing something because of the reward. Only if you do it without being ...
- 1,190
3
votes
Accepted
Does a moral act have to be necessarily beautiful?
TL;DR
No, moral acts are definitely not beautiful for Kant. They are objects of respect (as consistent through all works on practical philosophy by Kant), which is to some extend similar, but ...
- 10.7k
3
votes
Accepted
Laws are made for humans, but does everyone classify as a human?
What you are questioning is actually a hotly debated topic. Different groups have very different opinions as to such definitions of words. Your particular question is very apropos for the abortion ...
- 17.2k
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