General Discussion

As you know, the question of evil has been a thorn in philosophy and theology forever.

It necessitates questions of absolution and guilt, and suffering. Am I evil? Do I, by being unaware of own evil, make myself evil? Can one be evil and know it?

To directly respond to you with my reflections:

I think evil is aberrant and rare, but exists in an equilibrium in our population because of complex selective forces.

Evolution, red in tooth and claw, is certainly "evil" in some respects. It has no mercy for the maladapted and has invented some truly horrific and painful life strategies. At the same time, it lacks a consciousness and so I don't know if we can ascribe to it evil. However, the fact that evil-as-conscious-choice exists, and it is maintained by evolution.

Immanuel Kant has a relatively simple categorical definition of evil -- something that undermines the substrate it relies upon.

Lies, for example, are evil because they erode the assumptions of truth, which are necessary for lies to be advantageous.

Murder, adultery, greed can all be analyzed in a similar sort of way with Kant's imperative.

A lot of hemming and hawing from me to say I don't know. I think I know evil when I see it, and I hope I'm not evil. I can apply the evil label easily ex post facto to dictators and monsters like Hitler and Pol Pot and Stalin. However, I don't know what to do with that because I only know them by their acts, and not by their internal lives, which is where evil lives.

Do I think HUMAN evil is widespread? No. I think it can hide in the corners and do a lot of outsized harm, but I think most people are wired to be self-centered, but empathic. Apathetic but unwilling to actively hurt others.

In every day speech, I refer to Trump as evil. Upon reflection I don't know if he has the moral depth to actually be evil. He is just a husk.

But then again, if evil is the absence of moral character (and not the inverse of it), that certainly applies to much of the Republican party. If evil is an unwillingness to take moral stances, well, then evil is everywhere.

Thank you for the question. It is a tough one, a painful one, and an urgent one.