1 00:00:08,616 --> 00:00:13,359 Forget about "good as gold". Today it's going to get evil. 2 00:00:13,796 --> 00:00:15,702 But who or what is evil at all? 3 00:00:15,969 --> 00:00:17,044 The devil? 4 00:00:17,044 --> 00:00:18,120 The Illuminati? 5 00:00:18,569 --> 00:00:19,679 The mother-in-law? 6 00:00:20,445 --> 00:00:23,832 Usually evil stands for morally wrong decisions, 7 00:00:23,832 --> 00:00:26,296 a basic power influencing the history of the world 8 00:00:26,296 --> 00:00:27,921 and being the opponent of good. 9 00:00:27,921 --> 00:00:30,395 Meaning: where there is light, there is also shadow. 10 00:00:30,590 --> 00:00:34,041 Of course! God against the devil, the West against the terrorists, 11 00:00:34,065 --> 00:00:35,847 Aspirin against a headache ... 12 00:00:35,847 --> 00:00:38,337 But let's go back to the individual human being. 13 00:00:38,546 --> 00:00:43,749 Who actually defines what is “morally wrong”? 14 00:00:43,892 --> 00:00:47,830 Depending on one's ethic position, definitons differ significantly. 15 00:00:47,830 --> 00:00:51,452 According to Bible critic Benedict de Spinoza, evil is everything 16 00:00:51,452 --> 00:00:54,553 that blocks the self-assertion of an individual. 17 00:00:54,553 --> 00:00:55,983 So it's a force from outside 18 00:00:55,983 --> 00:00:59,020 that prevents us humans from developing freely. 19 00:00:59,239 --> 00:01:02,786 According to Kant, evil is an essential part of human nature, 20 00:01:02,786 --> 00:01:05,511 since humans are not only equipped with reason, 21 00:01:05,511 --> 00:01:08,777 but also with "empirical", entirely worldly needs. 22 00:01:08,777 --> 00:01:10,602 So the inclination to the "dark side"- 23 00:01:10,815 --> 00:01:13,302 has always been a part of us? 24 00:01:13,404 --> 00:01:16,883 His fellow Enlightenment thinker Rousseau sees things differently. 25 00:01:16,883 --> 00:01:19,417 For him, humans are born good. 26 00:01:19,417 --> 00:01:23,103 Only living in the community is what poisons them, makes them evil. 27 00:01:23,571 --> 00:01:27,131 So, are we actually born evil, or is it society that makes us evil? 28 00:01:27,203 --> 00:01:29,285 Nietzsche threw all of this overboard, 29 00:01:29,285 --> 00:01:31,069 declared "good" to be "bad", 30 00:01:31,069 --> 00:01:35,166 and "evil" simply to be a construct of Christian "slave morality.” 31 00:01:35,405 --> 00:01:39,193 Leibniz thoroughly examined evil. 32 00:01:39,193 --> 00:01:41,429 He separated it into three categories. 33 00:01:41,429 --> 00:01:43,406 First the malum physicum: 34 00:01:43,570 --> 00:01:46,733 pain, loss, loneliness, poverty... 35 00:01:46,743 --> 00:01:49,447 things you wouldn’t even wish on your worst enemy. 36 00:01:49,447 --> 00:01:52,185 Then Leibniz described the malum metaphysicum: 37 00:01:52,623 --> 00:01:56,471 small imperfections, breaking points built in by a divine hand. 38 00:01:56,471 --> 00:01:59,584 According to Leibniz, man himself can only be evil in one way - 39 00:01:59,812 --> 00:02:03,901 through the malum morale, the moral evil. 40 00:02:03,901 --> 00:02:06,929 The sin which you commit, when you turn away from God. 41 00:02:06,929 --> 00:02:09,847 In the 20th century, existential philosopher Karl Jaspers 42 00:02:09,847 --> 00:02:12,305 also divided evil within man into three categories. 43 00:02:12,474 --> 00:02:14,719 First: urges of any kind. 44 00:02:15,155 --> 00:02:17,436 Second: lacking will to do good. 45 00:02:17,469 --> 00:02:19,798 And third: the will to do evil. 46 00:02:19,848 --> 00:02:22,053 That is indeed interesting! 47 00:02:22,257 --> 00:02:24,922 Haven’t we always been more fascinated by Darth Vader 48 00:02:24,922 --> 00:02:27,936 than by Luke Skywalker clad in shabby eco-linen?! 49 00:02:28,369 --> 00:02:31,448 Regardless of your religious or ideological point of view - 50 00:02:31,448 --> 00:02:34,942 "pure" evil: killing, stealing, lying 51 00:02:34,942 --> 00:02:38,603 is what is bad for the individual and society. 52 00:02:38,758 --> 00:02:41,887 Yet it seems that we need evil. 53 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:45,789 Good and evil are in a dualistic relationship. 54 00:02:45,789 --> 00:02:48,480 One cannot exist without the other. 55 00:02:48,670 --> 00:02:51,787 Otherwise, Ozzy Osborne would just be a doddering father, 56 00:02:51,799 --> 00:02:54,490 and every Hollywood film would begin with the happy-end 57 00:02:54,490 --> 00:02:56,619 and plod along without antagonists. 58 00:02:56,910 --> 00:02:59,809 We need evil as an antithesis 59 00:03:00,097 --> 00:03:03,525 in order to find our way in the world of ethics.