![]() ![]() The life of the other is subordinated to my own and is reduced to a means to my own ends. In this case, a basic human good is treated as an instrumental good. Or, consider the act of treating another as a means to an end. An unjust act involves a refusal to render another his due, such as the truth, or property, or reverence of his life, etc. For example, justice is the constant will to render to another his due. Such a will is evil, because it is deficient, or lacking an order that it ought to have. They literally don't "know any better".Īn evil action is one that involves a will that is incompatible with an openness to the complete integration of basic human goods. That is why irrational animals are not treated as moral agents and held responsible for what they do. Moral evil is primarily about a disordered will for only a being with intellect and will is a moral agent. Basic human goods are aspects of human persons, and so a good will is one that is open to the entire network of human goods in oneself and in others, that is, wherever there is an instance of human being. The moral life has to do fundamentally with our relationship to the entire network of these human goods. Such basic intelligible human goods include human life, the knowledge and contemplation of truth, the experience and contemplation of beauty, leisure, marriage, harmony between oneself and others, oneself and God, and harmony within oneself (integrity). But there are a number of goods that are specifically human, intelligible, and basic, that is, sought for their own sake and not for the sake of some other end. This is what love is: willing the good of another (benevolence). A good will, however, is one that "wills the good". But in order to understand moral evil, it is necessary to understand the basic requirements of the natural moral law, and unless one understands these, moral evil is not always easy to spot. For everyone understands the nature of a bird, and so it is immediately obvious that a one winged bird is deformed. Moral evil is also a lack, a deficiency, or a privation, but one far more complicated than physical evil. ![]() A bird that has one wing suffers from a physical evil and as a result cannot fly, that is, it cannot function as it belongs to a bird to function. What is physically deformed lacks something that it ought to have. It is a deficiency, a corruption, a privation, a lack of something that should be there.Ĭonsider a deformity of any kind. ![]() This, despite appearances, is congruent with the notion that the "good" is fullness of being for all things desire first and foremost their own perfection, that is, all things desire "to be" and "to be" most fully. Aristotle wrote that the good is that which all things desire. Food that is bad for us brings about a corruption or deficiency of health. ![]() Such food promotes the fullness of our being. When we speak of good food, for example, we mean much more than that it simply tastes good. This implies that "good" is a property of being. Augustine pointed out centuries ago, is not a positive quality or a substance, but a privation or corruption of being. ![]()
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