3 ms·
Wait, what does reason mean precisely then? This sounds half-baked. Let's say I have the preverbial lever which kills someone but gives me a million dollars.
by SeanLuke 5y ago
Wait, what does reason mean precisely then? This sounds half-baked. Let's say I have the preverbial lever which kills someone but gives me a million dollars. Is it reasonable for me to increase my own utility by pressing the lever? Thus would Levi say it's not evil to do so?
- addingnumbers 5y agoMy beliefs aside for the sake of argument, one could claim the evil all falls to the person devising that contraption and issuing the reward for that decision.
- SeanLuke 5y agoThat seems to let one off the hook. Suppose that if person X dies you inherit his million-dollar wealth. We're out camping and you have the opportunity to do him in. So YOU'RE not evil in taking that opportunity: but rather, what, the campground is evil for making the opportunity happen, or the legal system is evil for permitting inheritance and not universal surveillance?
- akomtu 5y agoExactly. What you've described isn't evil. What would be evil is creating a society for those people where all truth is suppressed, all irrationality is praised, good deeds are punished and amoral behavior is rewarded. Basically, making that society as backwards as possible. And if in a few generations people there will embrace that order, because they don't know any better, and start descending into animalism, that would be an example of evil. In other words, evil operates at the soul level, so if you reject the idea of soul, you won't be able to come up with evil or good plans: all acts will be superficial.