Evil and good, the moral instinct

Man and evil in humanity

Evil is nothing other than to be inadequate should be. Hegel encyclopédie

In his dictionary of philosophical language, Paul Foulquié defines evil : which contradicts our tendencies to be sensitive ( pain or suffering from physical and moral ) is rational ( faults or sins, disorder and imperfections) . Contrary well . A: sudden illness ( suffering) . B: not committed. Moral fault, sin .

You can see the "evil" in two different ways . We can philosophize about this concept .. and you can feel it in our flesh.

On one side we have the evil act. Violence, cruelty, humiliation, in short, a producer of physical or mental pain sensations .

The other is evil concept . In other words, the study of "bad" * pipes, called negative behaviors. And the search for remedies.

* The quotation marks are there to remind the sometimes subjective side of these notions.

Spiritual, lawyers, philosophers, are responsible for this negative thinking . The state police, justice, psychology, etc. ., Mind therapy. It should be noted right away something . Evil is a human invention. It is the result of moral conscience and the ability to judge. By acquiring these two faculties, man has distinguished his actions right and wrong. This arrangement is unique in the animal world * .

* We study, we analyze, we think more and more to the question of evil .

Introspective awareness

The ability to conceptualize

Evil is a human specificity.

The animal world is not designed to question his actions. When natural primate assaulting a fellow, he is indifferent to the suffering it causes . It perpetuates an instinctive mechanism . A process based on survival and leaving little room for charity and compassion. These reflex behavior depends on the entire organization of the group.

Introspection or immediate

Failure to introspective awareness, has some advantages for the animal world. It allows him to stick to the immediate . Thanks to him, for example, our primate cousins ​​can live fully in the moment. Their mind does not need to project into the future or in the past. Nor to question the righteousness of their conduct.

This is not the case of humanity. Our species is now able to examine the past, the future and the conformity of its actions. Hence our huge behavioral progression. Since tens of thousands of man must think before acting . It has a moral and legal to meet code. When violates the rules, it must be accountable to society. Accountable to the victim. See his suffering. In short, humanity grows transgressing out of his narcissism. With this analytical power, the "evil" regresses permanently .

Leave immediately for a new immediate

In return, the right to question prevents man from fully enjoying the present moment. To question oneself, one must indeed leave the immediate reality . In other words, the inner walks are a bit at the expense of outdoor walks. But this loss of " Animal immediacy," working in secret to a new immediate . Absolute and immediate free from natural impulses .

the origins

Evil as actually stems from some primate behavior (predation, dominance, aggression, hoarding privileges etc. ) . In their human migrations, these actions become, theft, abuse of others, violence, selfishness, social injustice, etc. .

Evil as a judgment, the result of our brain evolution. This specificity has its origin in a kind of "moral instinctive " already present in nature * .

* I want to talk about this kind of moral example prohibiting incest, abuse of small extension of the acts of violence after submission, etc. .

Why such cruelty

Human specificity

L'essence de l'idée de juste, c'est d'offrir une issue au sadisme en affublant la cruauté du masque de la justice. Bertrand Russell l

Man can he ignore the anthropocentrism ? Can he avoid using his conception of evil as a universal reference ?

I do not think.

Henceforth, some questions arise.

1 / Why, between natural and human primates, evil decreases in amount but increases in cruelty?

2 / How we past "injustices" of nature, perversion and genocide ?

3 / Why human evolution was invented torture, Machiavellianism or mass murder ?

Some answers

On average, a human being undergoes daily less violence and abuse a natural primate. He lives under the protection of a shield laws preventing a large number of passages in the act . From an early age, the individual is included in an educational and normative system . This screen devalues ​​"bad" actions to promote "good" . This metamorphosis has three effects :

The passage of the good instinct to moral learned.

The development of our intelligence

Technological development.

1 / With the first effect, the man loses his natural banned in favor of banned taught.

For example, in nature, the violence continues dominating the first manifestations of submission dominated . This is what we call here " the good instinct ." This instinct does not exist in humans. It became a moral code * .

* The prohibition eg hitting a man down .

If the teaching of the moral code fails *, all excesses are then allowed .

* And this education must be accompanied by a good emotional development.

2 / The development of our intelligence, is double-edged . This option can go for good where evil. For evil, it can become an instrument of perversion and cruelty .

3 / The technical development can also jump start evil. In the last century provides us with many accounts . Much of the horrors of the First World War have been made thanks to new technologies. Nazi barbarism was also based on the technique for its atrocities perpetrated . To this of course adds the exponential increase in progress. If multiplies capacity building, it also increases the capacity of destruction and violence.

Evil as pathology

Transforming a monkey man

Suffering humanization .

The metamorphosis of a primate psyche human psyche, is a long and laborious process . It is our mind désimprègner certain behaviors " abusants " allowed in nature. These primary drives are still deeply rooted in human nature . It is replaced by the higher human values ​​as the moral conscience . This long processing submits the psyche of man and countless painful conflicts .

difficult metamorphosis

The primate trends are still very present in the human personality. The trends domination, hoarding privileges, predation, punctuate our evolution. These primary forces maldigestion constraints . They resent being banned expression of our consciousness or fear of the police . Their claws are beyond our will and our common ethical ideals . These impulses cause us to commit acts consciously or unconsciously we regret .

* And the same impulse led the small suburban offender, the CEO or the journalist to steal a scooter, millions or idea to their peers .

All this makes us very often contradictory beings. The suffering beings of the gap between what we want to be ( the moral ideal ) and what actually is.

Engine cruelty

This struggle between primates and humans forbidden impulses, creates frustration and psychological conflicts . Sometimes these conflicts, add an emotional failure, cold intelligence, and free use of progress. Then we have all the educational progress of the dictator. The mind can imagine the worst atrocities, mass murder or genocide . This ability to evil (characteristic of the human species ) arises at birth prohibited.

To the annihilation of evil

Today, the mix of cold intelligence and technological progress is relatively dangerous for humanity. Human education is still lacking. But this passage is punctual. Meanwhile, human consciousness is being raised . Monitoring means also . The principle of accountability is finally becoming a reality. One day, morality taught completely replace the natural moral . Human laws become the true nature of man ( as instinct is the true animal nature ) . And evil will finally overwhelmed by the human will.

2001

history of evil

Toute philosophie pourrait se réduire à rechercher laborieusement cela même que l'on sait naturellement Pascal