Are people morally evil?

[blackbird]

I think that most people are narcistic and only want is the best for themself.

[DarkAsmodeous]

Can you act any other way?

I don't mean that rhetoricaly either, can we act in any way other than the way we most want?

[Mormacil]

I believe deep down all we act on is power and sex. Society taught us to act differently.

[Seniosh]

We act morally because it is in our own self-interest. The sane ones among us have agreed to abide by certain "moral" rules, which are defined by self-interest. Killing you is immoral, but you killing me is immoral. Thus, everyone benefits, assuming we all follow the system.

Thus, morals stem from the necessity to establish basic rules for living in relative peace, as opposed to chaos, which is usually mutually harmful.

Of course, society quite often bends previous rules of morality, and does so whenever convenient. Slaves for example, could be attained and kept with a tolerable level of security and peace, so the morals of the time dictated that slavery was an acceptable institution. In the present day and age, slavery is not tolerated, probably because no one nation has such an extreme technological advantage to gather slaves in the first place, and because slaves are not necessary, and are not worth the trouble of putting down rebellion.

Plus, the integration of former slaves into our society on a level slowly rising to equal that of the former masters means that as a whole, society would reject slavery, simply because when you are enslaving equals, where is the line drawn?

And that's a discussion of slavery.

Basically, morals shift, depending on the needs of society to keep itself stable. Therefore, morals cannot be inherent, and people cannot be morally evil, because to be morally evil, you first have to define a set of morals, which are ever-shifting.

[DarkAsmodeous]

I agree that social perceptions of morality shift, but I firmly believe in an a priori set of moral principles, at least at a fundamental level, to believe otherwise is to deny the significance of human choice.

As for your statement morm, if we can be taught to act on thigns other than power and sex, there needs to be another facet of our decision making choosing to comply. What do power, sex, and anything else desired have in common? They are valued. And so, can't we say values guide choice?

[IAMTHEEMPEROR]

I agree with everything you said Seinosh. That pretty much explains it.

Deep down, we act on the same principals as animals, power, sex, the will to survive, like Mormacil put it. We are still animalistic deep down, though granted we are very smart animals. That's how we have a functioning moral society and most other species on this planet don't.

Society is based off of mutual benefit, not benefit for the individual. We all like power and the ability to take it, but we can't do it, because the benefits in the end do not outweigh the penalties. We have video games where we can pretend to be these people though, where people can do whatever they want. Like, in Oblivion, which do you think is funner? Doing farm labor to earn some money, or nuking the Imperial City and watching the mangled corpses go flying through the air?

[Mormacil]

Society is I think based on individual benefit, but benefit for all. We make comprimises. In the end we created a system with benefits and penalties for all. It's still changing and I think will change till the moment our race extincts.

Our "morals" are just a set of rules to protect the majority, so most individuals have the benefits from it. We know we need eachother to survive so we protect those we need. Then we ask help from people with a common interest in a certain (group of) people. We agree to protect them together so it's easier on us (personal gain) Deep down we're selfish and just like any other animal. But like IATE said, we're very smart. We created a complex system that in the beginning helped us a lot and know we're taught it's normal.

[IAMTHEEMPEROR]

Indeed :yes:

[DarkAsmodeous]

You have all just justified seriel murder, so long as you could fool everyone into thinking it was a natural death. It doesn't break society, it does benefit the individual acting, and by not being caught, the laws of penalty still apply, they just require establish guilt for any action.

In essence, you do not exclude any action from being just.

It is a fashion of the times to reduce rational choice to animalistic terms, and yet, William Harvey, who discovered how the circulatory system worked, risked his life in publishing his ideas, and said he did so out of a "belief in the love of truth that inheres in cultivated minds".

Our capacity for reason and for rational choice must not be devalued or denied, lest you sap actions of their meaning.

[Psychotic]

Originally posted by DarkAsmodeous
[snap]William Harvey, who discovered how the circulatory system worked, risked his life in publishing his ideas, and said he did so out of a "belief in the love of truth that inheres in cultivated minds".[snap]

Perhaps he was just stubborn.

AHA! You see, I still manage to reduce it to animalistic emotion.