What is evil?

Philosophisches Kopfkino - short lecture on philosophy

Forget about "good as gold".
Today it's going to get evil.

But who or what is evil at all?

The devil?

The Illuminati?

The mother-in-law?

Usually evil stands for
morally wrong decisions,

a basic power influencing
the history of the world

and being the opponent of good.

Meaning: where there is light,
there is also shadow.

Of course! God against the devil,
the West against the terrorists,

Aspirin against a headache ...

But let's go back to
the individual human being.

Who actually defines
what is “morally wrong”?

Depending on one's ethic position,
definitons differ significantly.

According to Bible critic
Benedict de Spinoza, evil is everything

that blocks the self-assertion
of an individual.

So it's a force from outside

that prevents us humans
from developing freely.

According to Kant, evil is
an essential part of human nature,

since humans are not only
equipped with reason,

but also with "empirical",
entirely worldly needs.

So the inclination to the "dark side"-

has always been a part of us?

His fellow Enlightenment thinker
Rousseau sees things differently.

For him, humans are born good.

Only living in the community is what
poisons them, makes them evil.

So, are we actually born evil,
or is it society that makes us evil?

Nietzsche threw all of this overboard,

declared "good" to be "bad",

and "evil" simply to be a construct
of Christian "slave morality.”

Leibniz thoroughly examined evil.

He separated it into three categories.

First the malum physicum:

pain, loss, loneliness, poverty...

things you wouldn’t even
wish on your worst enemy.

Then Leibniz described
the malum metaphysicum:

small imperfections, breaking points
built in by a divine hand.

According to Leibniz, man himself
can only be evil in one way -

through the malum morale, the moral evil.

The sin which you commit,
when you turn away from God.

In the 20th century,
existential philosopher Karl Jaspers

also divided evil within man
into three categories.

First: urges of any kind.

Second: lacking will to do good.

And third: the will to do evil.

That is indeed interesting!

Haven’t we always been
more fascinated by Darth Vader

than by Luke Skywalker
clad in shabby eco-linen?!

Regardless of your religious or
ideological point of view -

"pure" evil: killing, stealing, lying

is what is bad for
the individual and society.

Yet it seems that we need evil.

Good and evil are
in a dualistic relationship.

One cannot exist without the other.

Otherwise, Ozzy Osborne
would just be a doddering father,

and every Hollywood film
would begin with the happy-end

and plod along without antagonists.

We need evil as an antithesis

in order to find our way
in the world of ethics.