Subj : Knowledge of Good & Evil
To   : KEVIN GIBSON
From : LEE LOFASO
Date : Sat Jul 21 2001 04:28 pm

Hello Kevin,

>LL>Since one cannot make a good choice if there is no bad choice
>LL>available, it is not possible for one to do good.

KG>Please clarify.

Without a point of reference, there can be no "good" or "evil".
In other words, in order to do "good" one must have knowledge of
both "good" and "evil", otherwise whatever one does cannot be
known by him or her as being either "good" or "evil".

Consider the story in Genesis of man's fall from grace.  Before Adam
and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, neither of them had knowledge of
good and evil.  Whatever they did before eating the fruit, they did
so in a state of total innocence.  Suppose that Adam and Eve had never
eaten of the forbidden fruit.  What would have been the inevitable
result?  Could anything they would have done prior to eating the
forbidden fruit be considered "evil"?  If so, that would seem to
contradict the concept of God as being all-good and all-powerful.

It cannot be said that the forbidden fruit was "evil", or even
a temptation.  If that were so, then God Himself would be "evil",
creating "evil" creatures for His own "evil" purposes.

How then, can we come up with a definition of "good" and "evil",
and how such good and evil can be measured by man?  What is a
"good" act, and what is an "evil" act?  How is one able to know
the difference?

Given that morality is a convention of man, any definition of
what constitutes a morally good act would be subjective, in light
of absolute truth.  And what is absolute truth, if such truth
cannot be ascertained by man as absolutely true?

That brings us to what constitutes a moral evil.  If there is
a good and an evil, both good and evil must have an origin.  By
making a premise that God is the source of all good, then what
is the origin of evil?  Can good come from evil?  If so, that
would seem to contradict the original premise that God is the
source of all good.  But yet, we know that evil exists.

To answer those questions, and more, one can look to philosophers
such as Hobbes, Rousseau, Descartes, Carneades, and Nietzche.
Each of those philosophers had a different way of viewing good
and evil (reserving comment until next message...).

--Lee


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