Philosophers like to question the notion of good and evil. They ask: but what is good, and what is bad? Are the two mere subjective notions whose meaning varies from one individual to another; from one society to another? Do they exist independently from us, men who possess the faculty to reason, or do they exist because we do? To have a word alone that describes a notion suggests that man came up with all the notions that exist. It seems that in conclusion good and bad are born from our own minds, leading to the thought that such notions must probably rest on what we make of them.
Now take a tree, for instance. Does the tree exist independently from us, or does it exist because we do? Take man out of the equation and the tree is still standing. Tree becomes what it is: a word to encapsulate a meaning, or a description of something that will give others, through a mere single word, an idea or image of what the object is. How strange that when dealing with concrete objects the eye can see it suddenly makes it easier to separate what is from what is named or defined by man through language. More abstract things like notions are harder to fathom.
Could it not be that good and bad truly exist independently from us, though they are not as obvious or concrete as the tree?
Much like the tiny bacteria or the atom we only learned to see through a powerful lens a few decades ago, it may just be that we haven’t yet been able to see such things as good and bad for what they are, beyond subjective ideas we have of them, because our eyes as they stand today are just too weak. Or perhaps we fail to understand that our eyes alone cannot possibly allow us to comprehend every face that makes up reality.
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2 comments:
I don't believe that "good" and "bad" exist independently of our minds.
This because when we say "good" or "the good", we mean what we consider to be the qualities of good things that we have abstracted from these things. Because, for example, love and happiness both share qualities which we consider "good" but are themselves very different from one another, what they have in common ("the good") is not definable in concrete terms. In other words, it only exists as our perception.
Can bad things exist independently of our minds? For example, suppose there is a planet somewhere that we don't know about and on that planet a storm or some other disaster causes some intelligent species of creature to die of starvation, would that be a bad thing whether we knew about it or not?
The answer, I think, is that it depends on who is judging. Enemies of those creatures might think it a good thing, for example.
While we consider that some things are "obviously" bad, such as murder or child abuse (and I concur in the "obviousness of their badness), I nonetheless think that they are "bad" only because of our perception of them as bad.
It's an interesting question, however, and I fully expect that someone could make out a compelling case for the opposite view.
Thanks for your comment!
The notion of good and bad is a tough one to ponder on, that much is for sure. I like to venture thoughts, so it's great to read other people's views on matters that fascinate me :)
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