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Full Idea
The view that evil is an illusion is self-refuting: that is, if there is no evil, the illusion that there is evil is certainly evil.
Gist of Idea
Evil can't be an illusion, because then the illusion that there is evil would be evil
Source
Robin Le Poidevin (Intro to 'Questions of Time and Tense' [1998], 2)
Book Ref
'Questions of Time and Tense', ed/tr. Le Poidevin,R [OUP 2002], p.4
A Reaction
[The idea comes from McTaggart, and Le Poidevin is quoting Dummett on it]
| 552 | Empedocles said good and evil were the basic principles [Empedocles, by Aristotle] |
| 202 | No one willingly and knowingly embraces evil [Plato] |
| 23363 | The evil for everything is what is contrary to its nature [Epictetus] |
| 17224 | If our ideas were wholly adequate, we would have no concept of evil [Spinoza] |
| 19340 | Metaphysical evil is imperfection; physical evil is suffering; moral evil is sin [Leibniz] |
| 23762 | Evil is transmitted by comforts and pleasures, but mostly by doing harm to people [Weil] |
| 23088 | Evil is not deviation from the good, any more than good is a deviation from evil [Kekes] |
| 20162 | Evil isn't explained by nature, by monsters, by uncharacteristic actions, or by society [Kekes] |
| 15190 | Evil can't be an illusion, because then the illusion that there is evil would be evil [Le Poidevin] |