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Full Idea
One may transmit evil to a human being by flattering him or giving him comforts and pleasures; but most often men transmit evil to other men by doing them harm.
Gist of Idea
Evil is transmitted by comforts and pleasures, but mostly by doing harm to people
Source
Simone Weil (Human Personality [1943], p.94)
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'An Anthology' [Penguin 1986], p.94
A Reaction
Some people receive harm very passively, especially if it is normal. What of tough love, which is erroneously seen as harm?
| 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] |