I've never found definitions of evil palatable. The most common understanding seems to be when something is really, really bad. Obviously, if this is the definition, then the problem comes with not being able to state the line at which badness becomes evil. Badness, as I understand it, is the opposite of goodness. Well, what's goodness? I can only find Aristotle helpful: the good is that at which all things aim, the goal or telos or completion of anything. Badness is whatever negates this goal or telos. Rot on a tree is bad, not evil, because it prevents the tree from completion.
Evil is the will-to-harm of another person or thing where the harm sought is intrinsically valued and therefore has no practical purpose.
Evil seeks to negate for its own sake, in contrast to the bad action which seeks to destroy for the sake of something else. Even what we would consider to be the most wicked actions where human beings are disregarded for a deeper end doesn't constitute evil -- unless the person who commits the act finds intrinsic reward or enjoyment in these actions.
We more often know evil by its actions than through people who act out evil with any sense of continuity. You hit me and I hit back, and insofar as I hit back because you hit me I'm not being evil, but the moment I take pleasure in the response is when evil enters the picture. However, that can hardly be enough to consider me an evil person; I don't go around taking pleasure in harming other people, even if in this instance I have.
What's more interesting to me is how evil is cultivated. I see the person most likely to be (have a character of) evil who seeks revenge on the world he sees as injuring him. This sense of revenge becomes unconscious and the self loses track of the practical act of revenge and gets lost in the woods of valuing his will-to-harm for its own sake. He becomes evil by preferring the taste of harm decontextualized from its original practical purpose of getting even.
If the above is true, then evil has a sense of goodness inherent to it, because the evil person works from a decontextualized sense of justice or fairness, both of which are good; it's just that this justice or fairness has lost its way, becomes desublimated, and therefore ceases to be justice or fairness. Moreover, the evil are the most deeply wounded. Even though all we may see from them are the actions we deem deplorable and even incomprehensible, the cure to evil is getting close to the person we're most repulsed by and unveiling these hurts, and through offering our humanity giving some semblance of a cure.
Evil is the will-to-harm of another person or thing where the harm sought is intrinsically valued and therefore has no practical purpose.
Evil seeks to negate for its own sake, in contrast to the bad action which seeks to destroy for the sake of something else. Even what we would consider to be the most wicked actions where human beings are disregarded for a deeper end doesn't constitute evil -- unless the person who commits the act finds intrinsic reward or enjoyment in these actions.
We more often know evil by its actions than through people who act out evil with any sense of continuity. You hit me and I hit back, and insofar as I hit back because you hit me I'm not being evil, but the moment I take pleasure in the response is when evil enters the picture. However, that can hardly be enough to consider me an evil person; I don't go around taking pleasure in harming other people, even if in this instance I have.
What's more interesting to me is how evil is cultivated. I see the person most likely to be (have a character of) evil who seeks revenge on the world he sees as injuring him. This sense of revenge becomes unconscious and the self loses track of the practical act of revenge and gets lost in the woods of valuing his will-to-harm for its own sake. He becomes evil by preferring the taste of harm decontextualized from its original practical purpose of getting even.
If the above is true, then evil has a sense of goodness inherent to it, because the evil person works from a decontextualized sense of justice or fairness, both of which are good; it's just that this justice or fairness has lost its way, becomes desublimated, and therefore ceases to be justice or fairness. Moreover, the evil are the most deeply wounded. Even though all we may see from them are the actions we deem deplorable and even incomprehensible, the cure to evil is getting close to the person we're most repulsed by and unveiling these hurts, and through offering our humanity giving some semblance of a cure.
