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Full Idea
No one willingly goes to meet evil, or what he thinks is evil.
Gist of Idea
No one willingly and knowingly embraces evil
Source
Plato (Protagoras [c.380 BCE], 358d)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Protagoras and Meno', ed/tr. Guthrie,W K C [Penguin 1956], p.95
A Reaction
Presumably people who actively choose satanism can override this deep-seated attitude. But their adherence to evil usually seems to be rather restrained. A danger of tautology with ideas like this.
| 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] |