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From: murray@sbcs.UUCP (Murray Gordon)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: re: What evil is
Message-ID: <400@sbcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-Jun-83 04:46:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: sbcs.400
Posted: Wed Jun 22 04:46:18 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Jun-83 04:11:28 EDT
References: security.332
Lines: 50


          Well, according to Plato, and, I would think, the great
Spinoxaza (who lived life impeccably, giving up most of his material wealth
bequeathed to him to a greedy relative after he had shown his legal right
to this inheritance, and once risking his life to defenfd religious
dissenters) - evil arisdes out of ignorance. I have been intersested,
perplexed and angered for many years by people (first observed in
South Africa) who claim they are n"not interested in politics", that is,
it suits them to remain ignorant of much that goes on so they can
continue to fool themselves that they are not directly or indirectly
responsible for the human suffering created by the system inthese (white)
people benifit from (materially). Subsequently, I found that it wasn't
only this particular group of people who did this -. it occurs
in various forms in all the countries I have lived in, thiugh inough in
different forms. (Do you know what's happening in El Salvador, for
example? Do you know what goes down in South Africa? Many people
I have met here don't.)
          Perheps, if we consider Freud's central concept for
psychic defence mechanisms - repression - we can learn someting of
this poblem, or, perhaps be further mystified: Repression, simply
put, is the act of forgetting, anfd forgetting that one has forgotten -
which takes a lot of effort - try ignoring someone, then ignoring the 
fact that you are doing this.
          So, given that we generally don't hold people responsible
for acts done out of ignorance (like children, animals and fools), the
question remains of how to ascertain a person's intentions, and to
what extent can we hold him/her responsible for acts done on the basis
of some 'unconscious' drive.
                  What seems to me clear concerning this, is that persons who
hold themselves up as adspiritual and/or moral advisors to others
(doctors, priests, psychotherapists, politicians....) have a greater
responsibility to follow the Socratic path of doubt in the seeking greater
knowledge and self-awareness - which Socrates tells us we can
travel through taking doubting as our ally rather thanout our foe.
          So, we are left with a further question: In what way can
we discern whether someone is genuinely concerned with seeking
Truth, and with the ways of ascertaining the appropriate ways of going
about this quest.
          It seems to me that this was a central concern for Plato,
especially in The Republic.
          Spinoza seems to pre-figure Freud in being the foirst
western philosopher to advocate getting to know oneself (how one
is passively driven by the passions, which he defines in detail)
hthrough becoming more aware of ones (passiveon-ate) drives.
          LI would like to know whetehr anyone knows the etymology
of the word 'evil'?
            

        Murray - USSUNY at Stony Brook.