I'm not sure I think there are truly evil people in the world. I think that everyone, given the ability to make a true choice, does what they think is right. At first I was debating whether I should use that word (as opposed to "good") because of complications that could arise from trying to define the concept of "right" but I'm going to assume that people will generally understand what I'm saying without me having to spell it out.

So yeah, I think people do what they think is right, and "evil" just stems from differences in perceptions/understandings of what right is.

I was thinking about this in the context of people who have "wronged" me. I mentioned to my friend Alex at school that I was worried for the well-being of someone whom he knows treated me badly in the past, and he just paused and said "You're a good person." On my way home I thought about what that meant and why he said it. I don't hate the person I was talking about for what they did. I think that they were doing what they thought was "right" for the situation. If they had had a conception of how it would really affect me and the consequences branching from that, I don't think they would have done it. I guess some people would see my view on this as forgiveness.

Intent is important, I think, when considering mistakes. I mentioned in a previous post (The road to Hell is paved with good intentions) that I felt like intent wasn't enough by itself to justify recognition or praise, and I'm standing by that. Still, when someone does something "bad" I feel like it's important to consider why they thought what they did was right within their worldview. That's not to say that everything anybody does is hunky dory and we should just try to understand people and never condemn their actions, but I guess I just think that knowing what went into a particular action helps... settle your mind? I can't think of a good way to phrase that right now.

Even in instances where people do something they later regret, I think that in order to complete the action they do have to truly believe for a moment that it's the right thing to do, unless they're forced to do it, of course (but again, with true choice there should be no forcing). And with serial killers and people like that, I feel like they think what they're doing is "right" given the information and capacities they have. Maybe they have a stunted sense of empathy and can't actually conceptualize the pain/suffering they're causing, or they feel like the benefits of their behavior outweigh the costs, I don't know. In any case I do feel like we're not all operating with the same sense of right or wrong, and that seems like an obvious thing to say but I get the impression that a lot of people just don't internalize what a range of understanding of those concepts there can be.

I don't know if I really have a concluding point to this. Regardless of whether everyone is doing what they think is right, I do think some actions should be penalized. I also think there's a lot of room for forgiveness though and that the process of forgiving is aided by recognizing intent and the many facets of worldview that build a person's sense of right and wrong.

People make choices. There are times when you do something that you know is "wrong" even though, at the time, it still feels like the best option once all options are considered.
re: I'm fairly certain it's a gradual thing. There's sometimes an impulse to spend when I know I shouldn't. At which point I realize it later that I definitely shouldn't have and decide not to do it again ... until it happens again.
» LostSoul13 on 2014-11-26 07:53:53

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