Can someone be inherently evil?

[Azdgari]

Can someone be inherently evil?

[Regulus]

First, evil must be defined.

[FlipMode]

I believe so

[Azdgari]

Desirous of harm to others for no rational reason, perhaps? What do you think?

[cleargreenwater]

Re: Can someone be inherently evil?

I think a person's core instincts, perception of reality, and habitual reactions can together run SO counter to general/average human behavior, common decency, and psychological empathy that it would seem so to all intents & purposes.

[DGFone]

Keep in mind that some instincts are still built into us that prevent us from being "evil" without proper training. The most obvious is that for the most part, we want to avoid hurting other people. This is why armies have to train their soldiers to attack others, and even up to WWII, still managed to flunk it quite badly. Even today, soldiers find it easier to attack a retreating enemy, because it avoids having to look at their faces, and therefore having to override the instinct not to kill fellow humans.

Or to put it this way: If it was possible to be inherently evil, we as a species would not have survived to get this far.

[cleargreenwater]

The key word I used there in that sentance was "together". Competition and anger/fight response are also instinctive. Combine those instincts *together* with a perception that is unrealistic, such as everyone's out to get you or that you're somehow invincible, together with a habit of reacting to things by beating animals or cutting off social contact, can lead a person to be so counter and dangerous and dysfunctional that whether evil exists or not, they are a workable example of it.

I'm not talking about soldiers, who are essentially employees whatever their motivation for persuing their line of work, nor humanity in a broad sense. The question isn't if humanity is inherently evil, but if some one person can be.

And I think for as much as it matters, when significant criteria align/occur together a given individual might as well be, inherent or not.

[Woeler]

First of all, good and evil are illusions. They do not exist. They are not materialistic descriptions, they are conscious descriptions. What is good? What is evil? According to who? How de we define evil? Deontology? Teleology?

Killing someone isn't inherently right nor inherently wrong. Morality has bern constructed, they are a set of complex rules and recommendations that may give a psycological, social or economic advantage to it adherents, but is otherwise without universal or even relative truth in any sense.

"Evil" is never an absolute judgment, and so the answer is:no.

[Azdgari]

Maybe a better question is, can someone be evil at all? What makes someone 'evil'?

[Regulus]

[quote="Woeler"][Morality] ... is otherwise without universal or even relative truth in any sense.[/quote]

Isn't it?

There's a simple algorithm to determining whether or not something is right or wrong.

Would you want someone to [action] to you, given [list of circumstances that apply to the specific action]?

If no, then [action] is wrong.

If yes, then [action] is right.

As long as every possible term and condition is accounted for, this cannot possibly fail.

Ethics is nothing but logic. That's why what is called right and wrong, is called right and wrong.