Basic concepts of moral consciousness (good and evil, justice, duty, conscience, dignity, honor). What is evil and what is the cause of evil in a person

RUSSIAN STATE AGRARIAN CORRESPONDENCE UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Economics

abstract

By discipline:

Ethics

Completed by a 2nd year student

Shishova L.V.

Good and evil.

Good and evil are among the most general concepts of moral consciousness, delimiting the moral and the immoral. AT Everyday life we often use the word "good", but it is necessary to distinguish between its meaning in a relative and absolute sense. “Good” in one case is good, i.e. pleasant and useful, and, therefore, valuable for a given individual, in the circumstances, etc., and in another case it is an expression of good, i.e., valuable in itself and not serving as a means to another end. Good in the second, absolute meaning is a moral, ethical concept. It expresses the positive meaning of phenomena or events in their relation to the highest value, to the ideal.

Good is something that is evaluated positively, is regarded as important and significant for the life of a person and society. Good is what allows a person and society to live, develop, prosper, achieve harmony and perfection.

The concept of good correlates with two concepts - kindness and virtue. Kindness is a property of behavior, we call kind a person who brings love and help to people. Virtues are called moral and laudable human qualities, they can vary significantly in different eras and in different cultures. So, for example, the main virtues of the Greek sage were pride, dispassion, courage and strict fulfillment of duty. The leading Christian virtues are humility and indiscriminate sympathetic love, which is addressed even to enemies. Pride, pride, on the contrary, is ranked as a vice. In all cultures, folk heroes and saints are the bearers of the best virtues.

Starting from the XVIII century. in Europe, the idea of ​​morality as a system of mutual utility is being formed. In accordance with the views of the philosophers living at that time, good is everything that is useful, that is, everything that meets the satisfaction of any human need. Bringing good and good together, for a private subject, blurs the criteria between good and evil, because then murder can also be useful to satisfy someone's interests.

In moral consciousness, true good is that which is good for everyone, both for humanity and for each individual. But this goodness is rather abstract in a world where needs, desires and opinions collide. The ideal of goodness for all is an idea that indicates the direction of the movement of mankind, it includes only such landmarks that unite people with each other. Purely selfish values ​​cannot be moral goodness. True goodness is created without calculations, from the very need to pour out love, to give it to the world and people.

Evil is that which destroys the life and well-being of a person. Evil is always destruction, suppression, humiliation. Evil is destructive, it leads to disintegration, to the alienation of people from each other, it is the opposite of good. Moral evil is subjective in origin, it is the result of a reasonable choice of the person himself. There are two varieties of such evil - hostility and licentiousness. Hostility refers to the desire for destruction, aggression, violence, hatred, the conscious desire to harm other people. Debauchery combines such human vices as cowardice, cowardice, laziness, inability to control one's inclinations, desires and passions.

Nature is blind in its elemental manifestations, but a person has the power to curb the elements of his character to some extent: not to succumb to anger, not to succumb to temptations (glory, power, self-interest) and refrain from licentiousness. Therefore, from the point of view of morality, good and evil are recognized as a special kind of values ​​that do not relate to natural or spontaneous events and phenomena, but characterize intentional actions performed freely, i.e. actions. But not just free actions, but actions consciously correlated with the ideal. And, finally, good and evil as moral concepts are connected with the spiritual experience of a person and exist through this experience. Accordingly, the affirmation of good and the fight against evil are achieved mainly in the spiritual efforts of man. External actions, although useful to others, but not inspired by a person’s desire for good deeds, remain only a formal rite.

Difficulties in defining and understanding good and evil are due to their characteristics. On the one hand, they are general and universal in nature, i.e., they apply to all human relations. On the other hand, they differ in concreteness and immediacy, depend on the historical epoch and real social relations. In addition, the concepts of good and evil do not belong to the objective world, but relate to the activity of moral consciousness, and different subjects may have different ideas about them. Another feature of them comes from subjectivity - relativity, the same phenomenon can act as good in one case, and as evil in another.

In their imperative value content, good and evil are two sides of the same coin. This is manifested, firstly, in the fact that they are meaningfully mutually determined and are known in unity, one through the other. A person recognizes evil because he has a certain idea of ​​good; he appreciates the good, having tested on own experience what is evil. Secondly, good and evil are not just mutually determined, they are functionally interdependent: good is practically affirmed in the rejection of evil, that is, real good is the practical and active fulfillment by a person of the requirements imposed on him by morality. This mutual exclusion causes a constant struggle between good and evil, which determines the way they exist.

The victory of good has always been regarded by everyone as a triumph of justice, because the category of "justice" meets the criteria of good to the greatest extent. It is connected with the idea of ​​a set of morally acceptable norms, which act as a correct (adequate) measure of rewarding a person for his actions. Since justice is the realization of ideas about good and evil, then it embodies those of their properties that were mentioned above - this is subjectivity and relativity. What is substituted as fair to one, to another may seem blatant injustice.

The problems of good and evil, justice and injustice have been and remain the central problems of ethics.

Conclusion.

Good and evil are the most general ideas of people, containing comprehension and evaluation of everything that exists: the state of the world order, social structure, the qualities of a person, the motives of his actions and the results of actions. Good- this is what is good, useful, necessary for a person, with which people's hopes, ideas about progress, freedom and happiness are connected. It can act as the goal of human activity, as an ideal to which one should strive. Evil always has a negative meaning and denotes bad, undesirable, reprehensible for people, condemned by them, entailing troubles, suffering, grief, misfortune.

Already primitive mythology did not skimp on means of expression, depicting the place and role of good and evil in the world drama. For class civilization, with its growing antagonisms, this theme has become even more important. From an ideology that unites different nations and social groups they were waiting for an explanation of how the forces ruling the world treat a person, friendly or hostile, who in this world is “ours” and who is “strangers”, what should be fought and what should be supported.

From this arose the problem of the origin of good and evil, the most important in religion and ethics.

In its development, ethical teachings have gone through stages when good and evil

were considered as forces subordinate to the human mind, his will and as independent, all-encompassing entities. Supporters of the rationalistic approach considered good as the result of knowledge and usefulness, respectively, evil served for them as an indicator of harm and ignorance.

If in a non-religious consciousness goodness is considered only as a result of our assessment, that is, of a certain subjective position, then in religion goodness acts as a characteristic of the world itself. It is ontological, given by God. Moreover, God himself is a blessing, the highest of all possible blessings, he is the source and center of the human value world. Thus, the image of good is predestined to man, presupposed to him. People should not invent their own ideas about the good, but seek and discover them as objectively existing. On this path, they will inevitably come to God as the highest good.

At all times, philosophers and theologians have sought to understand the meaning of their

existence, penetrate the mystery of the world order, determine moral guidelines that can show the path to harmony and grace, justify the presence of suffering, grief and other negative phenomena in the world. Many religious and philosophical systems have gone from dualism, when good and evil were thought of as some kind of independent antagonistic forces, to monism, when these forces began to be considered as parts of a single whole.

List of used literature.

1. Volchenko L.B. Good and evil as ethical categories. M., 1975

2. Huseynov A.A. Great moralists. M., 1995

3. Zolotukhina-Abolina E.V. A course of lectures on ethics. Rostov n/D., 1995

4. Kondrashov V.A., Chichina E.A. Ethics. Aesthetics. Rostov n/D., 1998

5. Lossky N.O. Conditions of Absolute Goodness: Fundamentals of Ethics; Character

Russian people. M., 1991

6. Trubetskoy S.N. History course ancient philosophy. M., 1997

7. Schreider Yu.A. Ethics. M., 1998

The opposite of the ideal and the laws of good is evil. It arises with the free choice of erroneous knowledge. Manifested in aggressiveness, fear, anger, violence, destruction, hatred, lack of freedom. Hierarchy - beings consciously or unconsciously serving evil. Representatives among people: criminals, black magicians, psychics.

What is evil?

To understand the essence of malevolence, you need to understand what evil looks like. Main categories of evil:

1. Deliberate- personal motivation, development of tasks and fulfillment of goals by voluntarily harming another person with the aim of subjugating, humiliating, destroying and violence on a moral and physical level.
2. unintentional- occurs as a result of rash actions, the person is not aware of the actions performed. A person can repent of his actions. People under the influence of alcohol and drugs, the mentally ill.
3. Moral- the opposite of the ideal principles that society aspires to. Accompanied by a lack of conscience. Moral evil happens:

• hostile manifested in the desire for power and superiority. For all methods are used. Characterized by hatred, aggression, cruelty and the desire to destroy;
• promiscuity – personal quality towards self-destruction. Manifested as cowardice, laziness, lack of self-control, the priority of personal desires. A person begins to degrade and is destroyed spiritually and physically.

The psychology of evil

The understanding of good and evil affects a person's life. Good and evil are taught to distinguish from birth, convincing of the correctness of good deeds and the wrongness of bad ones. Man, as far as possible, tries to determine what evil is. It is not always possible to understand what is positive and negative. As a result of an erroneous perception of reality, problems arise. Dire mistakes are made.

A person develops his point of view, considering it adequate and correct. A common phenomenon when people are dissatisfied with their status and position in life. Some religious and philosophical beliefs say that money is bad, having an object of sighing is a sin, and living in wealth is not necessary. Based on the assertions, everything that is natural for life is bad and bad, a person should not have what he wants.

What then is good for a person, and what is bad? Everyone has their own take on this matter. No one should impose their point of view. Every person has instincts that awaken true desires. Giving a reasonable form to his instincts, a person can easily distinguish. Needs are satisfied by following natural desires. A person becomes balanced and calm, he adequately evaluates good and evil, personality psychology forms the correct idea of ​​good and bad.

What is evil - philosophy

Philosophers believe that the basis of a person's life ideal lies in the knowledge of the opposition between good and evil. Their statements:

1. Socrates believed that evil is a random phenomenon that a person does unconsciously, confusing it with good. The best remedy from evil, knowledge.
2. Plato said that these concepts are real: good is the world of ideas, evil is variability, sensuality, visibility.
3. Spinoza and Hobbes argued that there is no concept of good and evil - the philosophy of the thinkers was that the criteria for good and bad are formed by comparing phenomena and things with each other.
4. The interpretation of Confucius says that the roots of evil begin with society; there is no negativity in human nature. The man in whose generation social views evil, can undergo natural purification. Salvation lies in good deeds and manners.
5. Rousseau argued that all people are internally good, and evil is born under the influence of society.
6. Eternal evil does not exist, it can be overcome by religion, culture, upbringing and morality. Kant believed that people are dual:

• reasonable, with strong-willed character traits;
• sentient beings are subject to corruption and weakness.

Evil in Orthodoxy

Fundamentals of what evil is:

• evil does not refer to being, it does not exist by itself, there are evil beings - spirits or people;
• the essence of evil lies in the rupture with the Lord;
• evil arose in the world of angels - a cherub, who had great strength and freedom, raised a rebellion and separated from God;
• evil angels, incorporeal beings, could not disturb existence, but when a person with flesh appeared on earth, Satan had the opportunity to tempt people and destroy nature through them;
• Satan tempted to eat from the tree of knowledge, which was forbidden by God to prevent a break with Him, the violation of the Lord's instructions led people to the path of evil.

Because of the disobedience of the forefathers, sin took root in human nature and a sinful center was formed. The fight against evil in Orthodoxy is to overcome temptations and temptations. But not in the fight against Satan, since the evil spirit is defeated by God in the form of the Resurrection of his Son. According to religion, a person is rewarded with free will and choice, so he must pass all tests to strengthen devotion to the Creator.

What is evil in Buddhism?

The concept of "evil" does not exist in Buddhism. Supreme Evil - . It is a chain of transformation of animals, people and gods. No matter how righteous a person is, his life is full of suffering. Pain and sorrow come from human desires. The more desires, the more suffering. For example, if you want to eat, the animals whose meat is eaten suffer. In order to overcome suffering, one must give up pleasure. This is how evil appeared on earth according to Buddhism - because of desires, which are evil for people.

Anger - what is it?

An unsatisfactory result in expectations, desires, actions leads to negative emotions. A great accumulation of unsatisfactoriness develops into aggression, which entails a great force of destruction. So what is anger? These are feelings that perform a protective function. The person experiences pain and frustration. He realizes that he is in a zone of discomfort, and tries to get out of there.

What is the cause of evil in man?

Everyone has certain hopes and dreams. When confronted with reality, they can be partially or completely destroyed. The person begins to experience pain and plunges into deep dissatisfaction. What causes anger:

• diseases of various kinds - anger is accompanied deviant behavior, physical or emotional outbursts;
• depression or stress - along with a mental disorder, irritability occurs;
• increased anxiety - occurs with constant anxiety, may be accompanied by outbursts of anger;
• lack of attention - lack of attention from others, especially if there is no mutual attention, is expressed in sharp outbursts of rage;
• denial of personal emotions is a direct path to anger, restraining resentment leads to aggression;
• lack of sleep - exhausted nervous system, behavior becomes inadequate and unpredictable;
• weakness of character - susceptibility to manipulation leads to a state of resentment and anger.

What does anger do to a person?

Anger has turned into an epidemic, has become a major problem in society. Evil person loses the respect of others, loses love, sympathy and general satisfaction. Anger paralyzes, makes weak, leads to aggression, useless suffering and senseless self-torment. Bad for health. With strong anger, a large release of cortisone and adrenaline occurs, which provokes pain in the back of the head and neck, severe headaches, stomach ulcers, and so on.

How to overcome evil within yourself?

How to defeat evil in yourself and do you need to reproach yourself, hate, limit yourself? You need to understand what evil is and where it originates from. How more people sets himself prohibitions, the more anger and rage increase. Created psychological complex in self-hatred, which interferes with a normal life, joy and development. This leads to destruction. More on initial stage you need to cleanse yourself of negativity: to recognize and allow vices, but not to prohibit.

What to do if you feel angry?

What to do if there is anger inside:

1. Analyze the situation and inappropriate behavior.
2. Focus on emotions and feelings, imagine the image of the negative (stone, bomb), color, shape.
3. Mentally place an image in front of you.
4. Dream up: pass the image through an imaginary filter, see “clean” energy at the output;

moral evil

♦ (ENG moral evil)

evil arising from the choice and actions of people and having an impact on other people, as opposed to natural evil.

Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms. - M.: "Republic". McKim Donald K.. 2004 .

See what "Moral evil" is in other dictionaries:

EVIL- GOOD AND EVIL - categories of ethics. Good is fundamental. moral value, moral value in itself. Good is not "good towards something" (the fallacy of eudemonism); it is not a "supreme good", something comparative, but a simple ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

Evil- Evil ♦ Mal We are not inclined to let God get rid of us so cheaply. Evil is not just the absence of good (God can tolerate it only out of necessity, in order to create something other than himself), but its opposite. Yes, suffering is evil... Philosophical Dictionary Sponville

EVIL- [Greek. ἡ κακία, τὸ κακόν, πονηρός, τὸ αἰσχρόν, τὸ φαῦλον; lat. malum], characteristic of the fallen world, associated with the ability of rational beings, gifted with free will, to evade God; ontological and moral category, opposite ... ... Orthodox Encyclopedia

Evil- This term has other meanings, see Evil (meanings). In the Judeo-Christian tradition, Satan is the personification of evil. Painting by William Blake ... Wikipedia

- ♦ (ENG evil, moral) universal evil that affects the existence of people and their relationships, as opposed to natural evil that does not include human will. Moral evil arises from a human will that has turned away from the will of God or ... ... Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms

EVIL- everything that is the opposite of good. The problem of evil is also connected with physical ailment, pain, illness, death; it is also the evil that man suffers: misfortune. The evil committed by a person already forms a “moral evil”: with a generalizing ... ... Philosophical Dictionary

EVIL- the radical opposite of good. In philosophy, there are four types of evil: physical, moral, social and metaphysical. The first evil, physical evil, is that which causes suffering to a person and violates his well-being (disease). ... ... Eurasian wisdom from A to Z. Explanatory dictionary

EVIL- the category of ethics, which in its content is the opposite of good, and the concept of moral consciousness, which serves as the most generalized expression of ideas about immorality, contrary to the requirements of morality, deserving of condemnation, and ... ... Ethics Dictionary

EVIL- most general concept moral consciousness, the category of ethics, embracing everything denies. morals. values ​​of societies. and a person's personal life. Opposite 3. good or good. 3. designates as negative states of the individual (suffering, illness, ... ... Russian Pedagogical Encyclopedia

Evil- a fundamental concept for morality and ethics, the opposite of good and good. It covers the negative states of a person (aging, illness, death, poverty, humiliation) and the forces that cause these states (natural elements, social upheavals ... Pedagogical terminological dictionary

EVIL (German das Bose, English evil, French mal) or "evil" - in everyday language means the extreme degree of negative and evil. At the same time, in the moral sense, the predicate "evil" is primarily used as a concept that, from a moral point of view, is opposite to good, and thus differs from other forms of evil. Its special negativity lies in the fact that it is bad without any restrictions, or bad in itself. From the point of view of morality, one can speak of evil where it is possible to correlate the action with someone's conscious intentions (Zurechenbarkeit).

Evil (NFE, 2010)

EVIL is a value concept that is opposite to good (good), a cultural universal that is fundamental for morality and ethics. Evil covers the negative states of a person (aging, illness, death, poverty, humiliation) and the forces that cause these states (natural elements, social conditions, people's activities). The concept of moral evil defines what morality counteracts, what it seeks to eliminate and correct. It refers to everything that arises as a result of the conscious efforts of the subject and his arbitrary choice.

Good and Evil (Kirilenko, Shevtsov)

GOOD AND EVIL are the basic "units" of moral consciousness and categories of ethics, which, strictly speaking, cannot be defined within the framework of "practical reason" itself. D. and 3. as "moral" and "immoral" - the main binary opposition to morality. “Do good and avoid evil” is a moral maxim for the individual who has autonomy of will. A mature moral consciousness does not give a list of "good" and "evil" deeds; what is D. and 3. - the individual must decide for himself. At the same time, within the framework of philosophical systems and religious doctrines, there have always been attempts to define " common nature» D.

Good and Evil (Lopukhov)

GOOD AND EVIL - moral, normative and evaluative categories that exist only in the human mind for the moral assessment of behavior, thoughts, feelings, moods of people, as well as for the assessment of individual social phenomena. Good is everything morally positive, everything significant for a worthy life of a person, allowing him to develop, achieve different degrees of perfection, without violating the harmony of relationships with people and nature. Good is everything that is consonant with the voice of conscience, which, from the point of view of public opinion, should be.

Evil (Frolov)

EVIL - the most general evaluative concept, denoting the negative aspect of human activity, that which is subject to limitation and overcoming; is the opposite of good. 3. everything that has a destructive effect on a person in his natural and social manifestations is named; in a broader sense, it is identified with life-negation. There are 3. physical (diseases, natural disasters etc.), social (wars, economic crises, other social cataclysms) and moral (cruelty, deceit, and other vices). Problem 3.

Evil (Comte-Sponville)

EVIL (MAL). We are not inclined to let God get rid of us so cheaply. Evil is not just the absence of good (God can tolerate it only out of necessity, in order to create something other than himself), but its opposite. So, suffering is evil (and not just the absence of pleasure) and at the same time a model of any construction. After all, evil is, first of all, what is done, which means that God can remain innocent only if he does not exist.

Evil is the negation of good.

EVIL, denial of the good brought into the world by God, opposition to truth, goodness and goodness. Any evil is contrary to the Divine order; in the Orthodox consciousness, evil is personified with the spirit of darkness, the devil, Satan. The only way to know Good and Evil can only be found in the Holy. Scripture and Christian thinkers. Orthodox thought considers good as the norm and due, and evil as deviation from the norm and improper. In determining what is proper and improper, an Orthodox person is guided by the indication of the will of God, as it was expressed in natural and supernatural revelation. In the Bible, good is understood as everything that receives its being from God. Proceeding from this, evil, as opposed to the Divine norm of good, is an accidental phenomenon, something that should not have been and that is not in accordance with the will of God, since it was not included in the plan of the universe. Evil manifests itself in the destruction, disorder, annihilation of being and is divided into physical evil - everything that destroys the development of physical being (illness, etc.) - and moral evil - everything that contradicts the will of God in moral life and which is usually called sin. .

Good and evil are the most general concepts used to denote the positive or negative value of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world. A good is a positively evaluated phenomenon, a positive value (what benefits people). Evil is a negatively evaluated phenomenon, a negative value (that which harms people).

A person interacts with other people and with nature, therefore, not only the actions of people, but also natural phenomena, things (including elements of the second nature created by human labor) have a positive or negative significance for him. It happens that the same natural phenomena in some cases are good for people, and in other cases - evil. For example, rain: at the time of the ascent of seeds, good, and at the time of harvest, evil.

Moral good and evil are good and evil in relations between people; These are the actions of some people that have a positive or negative significance for others. If the subject-bearer of natural good or evil is one or another natural phenomenon, then the subject-bearer of moral good or evil is always a person as a being with reason, consciously acting, choosing a being.

A person's attitude to nature, to certain natural phenomena can be assessed as moral or immoral if this attitude indirectly affects the interests of other people, society as a whole.

What is good?

The general definition of the moral concept of good consists of "external" and "internal".

The “external” definition of moral good answers the question: what is the function (or purpose) of good in people's lives? Why do people need to be kind to each other?

The “internal” definition answers the question: what is good and what deed of a person should be considered a good deed?

"External" definition: Good is such a form of relationship between people that provides moral connection, spiritual unity between them..

Evil, being anti-good, prevents the emergence of a spiritual connection or breaks an existing one.

Such types of moral ties as friendship, comradeship, brotherhood would be impossible if people did not do good to each other.

"Internal" definition: good in the moral sense is disinterested help for which a person does not expect reward.

This definition of good follows from the positive formulation of the golden rule of conduct. Indeed, wish do as you would like to be treated, refers exclusively to those cases when there are conditions-prerequisites for the provision of disinterested assistance. All other types of assistance, support, assistance, services do not require compliance with this rule in a positive formulation.

The characteristic of good consists of two parts: 1) disinterested and 2) help.

The meaning of the first part is clear. Let's try to explain what help is.

Human assistance is very diverse. In the dictionaries of the Russian language, the meaning of the word “help” is revealed by various explanatory words:

1. Assistance in something, in any activity.

2. Support in anything.

3. Protection, revenue, salvation.

From these explanations, it is clear that help has a different degree of significance for those to whom it is intended.

The most significant is help-rescue. Such help prevents a tragic outcome. As a rule, it is absolutely necessary for the person being saved, and without it he could not have prevented the tragic outcome. An elementary example of help-rescue: helping a drowning man.