WEBVTT 00:00:08.616 --> 00:00:13.359 Forget about "good as gold". Today it's going to get evil. 00:00:13.796 --> 00:00:15.702 But who or what is evil at all? 00:00:15.969 --> 00:00:17.044 The devil? 00:00:17.044 --> 00:00:18.120 The Illuminati? 00:00:18.569 --> 00:00:19.679 The mother-in-law? 00:00:20.445 --> 00:00:23.832 Usually evil stands for morally wrong decisions, 00:00:23.832 --> 00:00:26.296 a basic power influencing the history of the world 00:00:26.296 --> 00:00:27.921 and being the opponent of good. 00:00:27.921 --> 00:00:30.395 Meaning: where there is light, there is also shadow. 00:00:30.590 --> 00:00:34.041 Of course! God against the devil, the West against the terrorists, 00:00:34.065 --> 00:00:35.847 Aspirin against a headache ... 00:00:35.847 --> 00:00:38.337 But let's go back to the individual human being. 00:00:38.546 --> 00:00:43.749 Who actually defines what is “morally wrong”? 00:00:43.892 --> 00:00:47.830 Depending on one's ethic position, definitons differ significantly. 00:00:47.830 --> 00:00:51.452 According to Bible critic Benedict de Spinoza, evil is everything 00:00:51.452 --> 00:00:54.553 that blocks the self-assertion of an individual. 00:00:54.553 --> 00:00:55.983 So it's a force from outside 00:00:55.983 --> 00:00:59.020 that prevents us humans from developing freely. 00:00:59.239 --> 00:01:02.786 According to Kant, evil is an essential part of human nature, 00:01:02.786 --> 00:01:05.511 since humans are not only equipped with reason, 00:01:05.511 --> 00:01:08.777 but also with "empirical", entirely worldly needs. 00:01:08.777 --> 00:01:10.602 So the inclination to the "dark side"- 00:01:10.815 --> 00:01:13.302 has always been a part of us? 00:01:13.404 --> 00:01:16.883 His fellow Enlightenment thinker Rousseau sees things differently. 00:01:16.883 --> 00:01:19.417 For him, humans are born good. 00:01:19.417 --> 00:01:23.103 Only living in the community is what poisons them, makes them evil. 00:01:23.571 --> 00:01:27.131 So, are we actually born evil, or is it society that makes us evil? 00:01:27.203 --> 00:01:29.285 Nietzsche threw all of this overboard, 00:01:29.285 --> 00:01:31.069 declared "good" to be "bad", 00:01:31.069 --> 00:01:35.166 and "evil" simply to be a construct of Christian "slave morality.” 00:01:35.405 --> 00:01:39.193 Leibniz thoroughly examined evil. 00:01:39.193 --> 00:01:41.429 He separated it into three categories. 00:01:41.429 --> 00:01:43.406 First the malum physicum: 00:01:43.570 --> 00:01:46.733 pain, loss, loneliness, poverty... 00:01:46.743 --> 00:01:49.447 things you wouldn’t even wish on your worst enemy. 00:01:49.447 --> 00:01:52.185 Then Leibniz described the malum metaphysicum: 00:01:52.623 --> 00:01:56.471 small imperfections, breaking points built in by a divine hand. 00:01:56.471 --> 00:01:59.584 According to Leibniz, man himself can only be evil in one way - 00:01:59.812 --> 00:02:03.901 through the malum morale, the moral evil. 00:02:03.901 --> 00:02:06.929 The sin which you commit, when you turn away from God. 00:02:06.929 --> 00:02:09.847 In the 20th century, existential philosopher Karl Jaspers 00:02:09.847 --> 00:02:12.305 also divided evil within man into three categories. 00:02:12.474 --> 00:02:14.719 First: urges of any kind. 00:02:15.155 --> 00:02:17.436 Second: lacking will to do good. 00:02:17.469 --> 00:02:19.798 And third: the will to do evil. 00:02:19.848 --> 00:02:22.053 That is indeed interesting! 00:02:22.257 --> 00:02:24.922 Haven’t we always been more fascinated by Darth Vader 00:02:24.922 --> 00:02:27.936 than by Luke Skywalker clad in shabby eco-linen?! 00:02:28.369 --> 00:02:31.448 Regardless of your religious or ideological point of view - 00:02:31.448 --> 00:02:34.942 "pure" evil: killing, stealing, lying 00:02:34.942 --> 00:02:38.603 is what is bad for the individual and society. 00:02:38.758 --> 00:02:41.887 Yet it seems that we need evil. 00:02:42.040 --> 00:02:45.789 Good and evil are in a dualistic relationship. 00:02:45.789 --> 00:02:48.480 One cannot exist without the other. 00:02:48.670 --> 00:02:51.787 Otherwise, Ozzy Osborne would just be a doddering father, 00:02:51.799 --> 00:02:54.490 and every Hollywood film would begin with the happy-end 00:02:54.490 --> 00:02:56.619 and plod along without antagonists. 00:02:56.910 --> 00:02:59.809 We need evil as an antithesis 00:03:00.097 --> 00:03:03.525 in order to find our way in the world of ethics.