Just a short reply. I understand that someone who's never seen black or white would not know one from the other, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There is a black and there is a white, it's a fact, even if it can only be expressed in our limited perception and we cannot share such an idea with someone who doesn't percieve black and white. Or even if said person can see and understand them, perhaps sees them differently than the rest of us.
So although the person may not consider themself evil, or perhaps even they do consider themself evil, the deeds they commit and the thoughts they envision are indeed good or evil merely by being what it is, wether it is percieved as such or not.
Society's role, as it stands on this issue, is to determine what is good and evil, and even within this regard, it is merely a perception of society as a whole. Why is killing wrong, yet we send men off to war? A simple twist of setting changes perception entirely and makes an horribly wrong action by social standards into a completely acceptable method of achieving a goal. Killing is still wrong everyone would agree, but the line blurs and perception changes for that specific situation.
Ah, I see my reply is no longer short, but I hope I've gotten my idea across. I can agree that they would not percieve evil, but it does not mean that they are not evil.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 04:38 pm (UTC)I understand that someone who's never seen black or white would not know one from the other, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There is a black and there is a white, it's a fact, even if it can only be expressed in our limited perception and we cannot share such an idea with someone who doesn't percieve black and white. Or even if said person can see and understand them, perhaps sees them differently than the rest of us.
So although the person may not consider themself evil, or perhaps even they do consider themself evil, the deeds they commit and the thoughts they envision are indeed good or evil merely by being what it is, wether it is percieved as such or not.
Society's role, as it stands on this issue, is to determine what is good and evil, and even within this regard, it is merely a perception of society as a whole. Why is killing wrong, yet we send men off to war? A simple twist of setting changes perception entirely and makes an horribly wrong action by social standards into a completely acceptable method of achieving a goal. Killing is still wrong everyone would agree, but the line blurs and perception changes for that specific situation.
Ah, I see my reply is no longer short, but I hope I've gotten my idea across. I can agree that they would not percieve evil, but it does not mean that they are not evil.