DanArmak comments on The Danger of Stories - Less Wrong

9 Post author: Matt_Simpson 08 November 2009 02:53AM

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Comment author: AdeleneDawner 08 November 2009 08:57:40PM 0 points [-]

I'm not sure I can answer this coherently; I came to the conclusion that good and evil are not objectively real, or even useful concepts, long enough ago that I can't accurately recreate the steps that got me there.

I do occasionally have conversations with people who use those words, and mentally translate 'good' (in that sense) to 'applause light-generating' and 'evil' to 'revulsion-generating', 'unacceptable in modern society', and/or 'considered by the speaker to do more harm than good', in estimated order of frequency of occurrence. (I often agree that things labeled evil do more harm than good, but if the person doing the 'evil' thing agreed, they wouldn't be doing it, so it's obviously at least somewhat debatable.) I don't use the word 'evil' at all, myself, and don't use 'good' in the good-vs.-evil sense.

Those words are also curiosity-stoppers - it's not very useful to label an action or viewpoint as 'evil'; it's much more useful to explore why the person doing that thing or holding that attitude believes that it's correct. Likewise, labeling something as 'good' reduces the chance of thinking critically about it, and noticing flaws or areas that could be improved.

Comment author: DanArmak 08 November 2009 09:14:18PM 2 points [-]

I often agree that things labeled evil do more harm than good, but if the person doing the 'evil' thing agreed, they wouldn't be doing it, so it's obviously at least somewhat debatable.

They cause harm to you, and good to the person doing it. Nothing to disagree about.

Comment author: AdeleneDawner 08 November 2009 09:22:15PM 1 point [-]

The discussions in question have generally been about the actions of third-parties in other parts of the world, which haven't had any appreciable effect on my life (unless you count 'taking thought-time away from other issues' as an effect).

In cases where the discussion is about something that's been done to me, I still don't use the word 'evil', and I've actually been known to object to other people doing so in those cases. 'Selfish', 'misguided', 'poorly informed', 'emotion driven', and the like cover those situations much more usefully.

Comment author: DanArmak 08 November 2009 09:53:23PM 1 point [-]

Then, 'harm to someone'. Not necessarily to you. My point was that disagreement about the good/evil label doesn't mean there's disagreement about doing good or harm to someone.