Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!ucbcad!ucbvax!rimey From: rimey@ucbvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.religion Subject: Re: what IS evil Message-ID: <423@ucbvax.UUCP> Date: Sun, 26-Jun-83 17:37:07 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbvax.423 Posted: Sun Jun 26 17:37:07 1983 Date-Received: Mon, 27-Jun-83 20:25:06 EDT Lines: 35 There are problems with using human life as a basis for good and evil. First all all, we must consider other forms of life. After all, a chimpanzee is intelligent, and is as capable of observing the world around him as a baby human is -- shouldn't chimpanzee life then be also used as a basis for good and evil every bit as much as a human baby's life is? In addition, how about extra-terrestrial life? Even if you believe that we shall never actually CONTACT any extra-terrestrial life, you have to grant that there is a good chance that somewhere out there some form of intelligent life exists. Shouldn't this contribute to a definition of good and evil?? Perhaps it does not contribute to our working day-to-day morality, but it must contribute to any complete definition of good and evil. The point is that human life is not INTRINSICALLY special. However, we certainly don't attribute the same importance to all forms of life as we do to human life. There seems to be a contradiction here. The contradiction is resolved by saying that human life is not fundamental, and that life itself is not fundamental. What is more fundamental is the set of things that makes life worth living--that is, feeling and thought. The life of a chimpanzee has worth because the chimpanzee is an intelligent being that can feel joy and pain. The life of a bacterium, on the other hand, has little or no worth. In short, life itself is not important. What is important is the joy, pain, and intelligent achievement that life allows. It is only as a vehicle to these other more fundamental definers of good that life is sacred. -Lorenzo Sadun sadun@ucbbach P.S. Note that I have not claimed that feeling and thought are the ultimate bases of good and evil, only that they are more fundamental than life. L.S.