Nothing Can Be Good or Evil in Itself

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Nothing Can Be Good or Evil in Itself

"Truth, beauty, and goodness are not eternal, objective realities which man discovers, but are the creative products of the human mind as it exercises its 'will-to-power'. In other words, man is a creator of values." (Nietzsche) So what is good and evil, but that defined by man and therefore a purely subjective concept. Could we, society, have one without the other? By determining what is good, we in turn determine what is evil. How do we know what they are; that is if they really exist? One must first try to define what good and evil are before attempting to question their existence.

What is good? Is it the selfless act of a volunteer at a homeless shelter or an honest and truthful taxpaying citizen? Webster's dictionary defines good as being of favorable character, wholesome, and virtuous. (Merriam-Webster) "A good will is not good because of what it effects or accomplishes--because of its fitness for attaining some proposed end: it is good through its willing alone-that is, good in itself." (Kant) In essence, the traditional sense of good is an act done only with the benefit of others in mind rather than for one's own personal interests. However, for society to view this as good, an act must be intended to benefit society as a whole as well.

Dr. Martin Luther King's speech, I Have A Dream, is an excellent example of a good will affecting the society as a whole. "King believed that the struggle for civil rights was a part of a larger struggle in which the forces of freedom and individuality, the forces of righteousness, would triumph over the forces of oppression and prejudice, the forces of ignorance." (King) He stressed freedom as a right, as an overall good...

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.... "I Have A Dream." The Twentieth Century: Mirrors of Mind. Second Edition, Revised. Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Hunter Books, Incorporated, 1991.pp 138-140.

Merriam-Webster of America. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 1997. pp 325-326.

Mill, John Stuart. "Utilitarianism." Philosophy: A Literary and Conceptual Approach. Third Edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Incorporated, 1995. pp 306-319.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. "Beyond Good and Evil." The Twentieth Century: Mirrors of Mind. Second Edition, Revised. Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Hunter Books, Incorporated, 1991. pp 16-20.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. "The Humanism of Existentialism." Philosophy: A Literary and Conceptual Approach. Third Edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Incorporated, 1995. pp 434-443.

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