Song of the Week:
XXX.FEAT.U2 by: Kendrick Lamar, U2
Big Man Above
Welcome to The Unfinished Times, it is I, your writer, here to sprinkle some magic on your Wednesday. To my OG readers, I love having you here, and to my newcomers, buckle up for some fun, crazy content. This week, we are diving into another wildly loved topic headfirst in the philosophical battle of- good versus evil. Most of the time this topic deals with God being omnipotence but⌠that not the angle I want to shoot for today. Rather we are going to explore the chaotic realm of free will and human nature.
Whatâs your Psycho Pass?
Recently, – like last summer- I stumbled across a rather rare kind of anime that will have your mind blown. This was unlike anything I had ever seen before, way better than any mind-fucking movies like The Matrix or the dream one with Leonardo DiCaprio. I recommend it if you like mind benders that will have you question your own beliefs, reality, the world etc. If you have any recommendations please share them, itâs actually one of my favorite genres to watch or read- I donât discriminate.
Anyways, let me give a short premise of this gem so you can get the bigger picture. It takes place in a society in Japan that has developed advance technologies to read your mind. Why? So, they can determine if your thoughts will or can cause harm to the general people. They call it a Psycho Pass; this score becomes a way to organize the mass; normal people in this case, stay 100, the further you are from zero the more your psycho pass is tainted with evil thoughts. And these levels determine your status, your job, your friends, your whole livelihood – so it is desirable to keep a low score to have a good life. The main characterâs psycho pass is zero -which is amazing- and is led to join the police force. While she is working cases, she uncovers that this society isnât this perfect utopia and tries to figure out how it can be. I donât want spoil it anymore, but trust me, itâs really good, it does have a mix of gore and sine chilling suspense, this is your warning.
This anime got me pondering -what defines evil? What makes an evil person or good person? How do you stay good? Life after this show just wasnât the same. Trying to digest what I used to see good and evil as- separate cosmic twins- but it turns out, itâs a tad bit more complicated.
I Kant do it
Upon doing my own research about the topic I realized two things; the 21st century philosophical community is full of people who love to overthink. And two, I really fit in. The reason I fit in is because I could never put my finger on why I always had trouble with answering the above questions. Which is when my fellow philosophical pals helped me realize that the word âevilâ has no explanatory power. When the word is used to describe an actions or character, it doesnât really tell you anything about the object it is describing even though it can be used as an adjective The definition doesnât help either, âProfoundly immoral and wickedâ (Dictionary). Most of the time, people think evil is the absence of good or ungodly; it is the opposite of something. But this can also be said about the concept of good or right and wrong.
Moreover, the idea of evil can be looked at in two ways, 1.) a broad sense or 2.) a narrow sense. It sounds just like how it is described; broad evil are things like natural disasters, tsunamis in Japan, earthquakes in California and also moral evil that is used in theological texts like the Theory of Evil. The narrow sense deals with moral condemnation used in contemporary moral, political and legal contexts. While this helps separate the use of evil it does make it more difficult to grasp a response to why evil exists. Since the topic of evil can be explained in both situations it makes harder to pinpoint how to defeat evil. It can get really messy, really fast.
The Will
The theory of Evil can be said to be birth by the man- Immanuel Kant- he offers in my opinion fascinating points of evil. He reveals three conflicting factors of human nature 1) humans have free will 2) we by nature lean towards goodness and 3) we by nature lean towards evil (Stanford). These conflicting factors sum up life in a nutshell and according to Kant if your will is not morally good then you have an evil will. Of course, there are levels to how evil your will is: first stage frailty, next impurity and lastly perversity.
A person with a frail will tries to do the morally right things because these actions are morally right but fails to do so because they are too weak to follow through. So, they end up doing the wrong thing due to weakness of will. A person with an impure will does even attempt to do morally right action because they are morally right. They only perform because it is morally right partly and partly something else i.e. self-interest or an incentive. Lastly, someone with a perverse will only prioritize incentives and or self-interest. So, if their motives align with the morally good action then the morally good action will get done (Stanford). Kant puts emphasis on the reasons behind committing such actions. He vocalizes the importance of doing morally good just because they are morally good and not if the action actually harms others.[1] That is due to his other theory on what is a moral good will.
Evil Lives Here
I leave you all with these food for thoughts to think about it in your own perspective. One of the beauties of philosophy is that there is no right answer. It is just people who want to share what theyâre thinking, and you can agree or disagree or agree a little bit or not. So, what do you think?
On another note, this song of the week hits the very core of America, in my opinion. It is jam packed with, I believe, the problems of America or the evils that live here. Kendrick Lamar is able to symptomatically press together all these issues in a song that is 4 minutes and 12 seconds. Wow! He is truly a genius! Especially with U2, I find that so iconic and ironic at the same time. And if you enjoyed this weekâs topic stick around for next Wednesday because we are going to talk about the opposite of evil, is it good?
[1] If you want to read more, I found all my research on this website: The Concept of Evil (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). It is really, really long but I found the content to be an easy read and entertaining to read. It answered all my confusion and made me feel like I was in class. Leaving me with more thoughts to think about.
Thank you for joining me on this journey at The Unfinished Times! Don’t forget to follow me for more insightful content, give a shout-out to spread the word, and consider signing up for our Co-Collective to be part of our vibrant community. And if you missed any posts from previous weeks, take a moment to catch up! Let’s continue exploring, sharing, and growing together! See you in the next post~ XOXO
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