Evil

[A18]

What is your favorite definition of evil by a "major" philosopher? (Quotations, please.)

[Tetro Kornbluth]

That begs the question, who is a major philosopher?

[A18]

Someone who has at least one formal publication. But the quote doesn't have to be from that publication.

[John Dibble]

Here's a few good ones I found - I don't necessarily know all the people, I just like the quotes.

Hannah Arendt: The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.

Mary Wollstonecraft: No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.

Molly Ivins: I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth.

Pascal: Man is neither angel nor brute, and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the brute.

Robert Heinlein: But goodness alone is never enough. A hard cold wisdom is required, too, for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom invariably accomplishes evil.

Soren Kierkegaard: Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings.


But really I can't think of a good definition for evil - it's one of those nebulous human concepts that everyone understands but nobody can fully explain. What things are good or evil are matters of perspective, though.