If you had never experienced something 'bad' in life, would you know that something is 'good', without 'bad' to compare it against. If everything was good, maybe things that are excellent would be 'good', and things that are 'OK' would be 'bad'. Maybe what we think is bad today is actually 'OK', and just a comparative reference for 'good'.
2007-08-13 15:27:03 · 27 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
If we define "good" as experiences which we enjoy and "bad" as experiences which we would like to avoid, then I believe the answer is yes. Our brain does not require "bad" experiences to reward us with endorphins when we do "good" things. One does not have to starve to enjoy eating, for example. Now, "bad" experiences can intensify "good" experiences, and vice versa, but I think that the brain comes with enough pre-programming that we do not require comparative experience.
This is of course predicated upon a very limited definition of "good" and "bad" related to brain chemistry, and ignores them as being completely conceptual, and therefore diametric.
2007-08-14 03:46:27 · answer #1 · answered by Lao Pu 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This leads me to something I have always wondered, Would we appreciate summer as much if we didn't have a true winter? I learned the answer when I moved to Georgia from Indiana, and the answer is no. I don't appreciate the summer in Georgia as much as I do in Indiana, nor do I appreciate the fall or the spring, because there is hardly any transition.
Now, can there be good without bad? Surely, but would it be noticeable? No, read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World to see the perfect example of what people believe to be a utopia without bad and evil.
Not only would good be not as exciting, but everything in between (such as spring and fall) would almost seem as if they are just skipped over, and don't exist at all, making for a very dull life.
Again, can good exist without bad? Yes, but do you really want it to?
2007-08-13 15:39:11 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Good can exist w/o the bad but it'd be awfully boring. The same way sound exists w/o being heard.
A prayer I heard once went Lord, help me to laugh again. But never let me forget I cried.
Our most basic need is food and shelter. Anything beyond that is a blessing. There are many things in life that are bad that we have to experience to achieve the good. Having chicken pox makes you immune to smallpox which is much more deadly. But those same chicken pox can drive you insane with pain and/or itching yrs. down the road with shingles. So none are really good. But in an epidemic of smallpox having chickenpox could save your life.
The drama, the wisdom gained, the experiences of both bad and good is what makes life full. But I believe good can exist w/o evil. According to the Bible in the end times all christian influence (faith, not religion) in the world will be removed except on an individual case by case (they'll be given over to a strong lie). I don't think I want to be here to witness that.
But if evil can exist by itself why not good? Especially if God (good) created the very being that came to personify evil?
2007-08-13 22:15:31 · answer #3 · answered by syllylou77 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mankind is caught in this duality thinking. Indeed, good isn't there without bad. But, that being said, it is our task to see beyond that level "of consciousness". It is a bad thing to lose years of our life being trapped in "judgementalism". The "I have a good, the other a bad behaviour" - thing. Darkness is not existing on its own, it is not a force or a devil thing: it is just absence of light, absence of the sun, of fire, of energy. So, on the moral level: if you are challenged by some bad instance: just light your place and your neighbour (switch on the light) . That is also what "enlightenment" is all about. And how could you interpret "light": well, both ways, 1- that which makes things visible; 2- not heavy. Being humorous is such an "unheavy" action.
2007-08-13 15:50:13 · answer #4 · answered by Robin frisky 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think Good and Evil exist in an objective way.
They do exist as ideas, and can have a big influence on how people see the world and themselves.
Really I think good and evil, stem from feelings.
I.e. like and dislike.
I don't mean emotions. I mean something which is more heart felt. How something sits with you? Do you feel comfortable with it?
I think the capacity to make decisions based on this sort of feeling based reasoning is what really makes us human.
Any computer can follow rules and logic. Only your heart can tell you if a rule is just.
Any morality that treats everybody the same is unjust.
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2007-08-14 00:02:51 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's all relative - without Evil, there would be nothing to compare Good to...
In a "good" world (as in one where there is NO evil), EVERYTHING would be EXACTLY the same - as even the SLIGHTEST variation would be "less good" (thus "evil").
It would be exactly like the "Neutral Planet" on Futurama...
"Where everything is grey, the official motto is "Live free or don't", and the ruler of the planet has "no strong feelings one way or the other". When Zapp Brannigan attempted to attack the planet in "Brannigan Begin Again", a "beige alert" was issued, and the leader of the neutral planet said "If I don't survive, tell my wife 'Hello'". "
2007-08-13 15:50:02 · answer #6 · answered by kr_toronto 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Good" cannot be conceptualized as good without first appreciating the exact opposite. It is impossible to differentiate between two things when one is unknown. For example, a human being cannot know what it is to not exist, since he does exist. In the same way, good without bad is simply being.
"Good," by definition, is the opposite of bad. Clearly, they are antonyms. In all apparency, that which is "bad" cannot be defined in degrees, as only two mutually exclusive states exist.
2007-08-13 15:43:39 · answer #7 · answered by Dr. Blake 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you believe the Biblical story of creation, good did once exist without bad. Then man ate from the tree of knowledge. So did bad always exist, or was it just hidden from Adams perception?
2007-08-13 16:25:32 · answer #8 · answered by cwbyht 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No - good cannot exist without bad. Read C.S.Lewis books - he is a excellent author concerning the formation of good and evil (bad)
Very practical... down to earth
2007-08-13 15:43:33 · answer #9 · answered by spcn 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is an excellant question,and the ansewer,I believe,is no.There is no positive without negative,both are forms of energy as such in life&life choices,there are bad ones&good ones.One,unfortunatly,can't exsist without the other.it is the way of the world&the way of the cosmos
2007-08-13 15:33:36 · answer #10 · answered by TL 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋