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Full Idea
There is no more reason to think of evil as deviation from the good than there is to think of the good as deviation from evil.
Gist of Idea
Evil is not deviation from the good, any more than good is a deviation from evil
Source
John Kekes (Against Liberalism [1997], 02.2)
Book Ref
Kekes,John: 'Against Liberalism' [Cornell 1997], p.29
A Reaction
This is a political moderate right winger defending the concept of evil as a basic and inescapable component of existence, in contrast to liberals who tend to deny 'pure evil'.
| 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] |