more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Empedocles was the first to give evil and good as principles.
Gist of Idea
Empedocles said good and evil were the basic principles
Source
report of Empedocles (fragments/reports [c.453 BCE]) by Aristotle - Metaphysics 985a
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.17
A Reaction
Once you start to think that good and evil will only matter if they have causal powers, it is an easy step to the idea of a benevolent god, and a satanic anti-god. Otherwise the 'principles' could be ignored.
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] |