Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_MacDonald
Neither. Good and evil are constructs of the individual society. What one views as good or evil may be construed as just the opposite by another. Humans are nothing more than a more intelligent and manipulative animal. We do what we need to to survive. The judgment of whether those survival actions is made by the collective, so only the organized collective can be considered good or evil, and only those institutions and mechanisms that guide such collectives be considered good or evil. As Stanley Milgram proved, the average individual gives way to the collective authority, and complies with the demands of the authority regardless of the moral or ethical ramifications. This supports the theory that humans do not commit evil acts on their own accord, but only comply with the evil acts metted out by the society under which they live. This explains why the attrocities such as the Holocaust can take place. On an individually humanistic level, these crimes should never have taken place, as the individual's moral compass should have guided their actions. Once the collective authority is introduced, the individual gives up their autonomy and performs the actions as demanded by the authoritative figure. Hitler was not an "evil" guy on his own, just a guy with a different view of matters. Once thrust into a position of power with an agenda and the assets that allowed disassociation, he was able to make incredibly heinous things happen. The collective allowed for the manifestation of evil, as judged and designated by our society, not the individual.
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This represents just an entirely poor and ill-informed view of the nature of man. I'll follow up on this later.
The question is both an ethical and biological question, you have to understand both.