How do we understand the concepts of "good" and "bad"?

Question

Just wondering here, but how do people measure the concepts such as "good" and "bad", "right" and "wrong"? What do people comprehend as any of the aforementioned? Why?

There seem to be so many different ideals and way of measuring such concepts - afterall, we have those ideas and can ultimately make our own ideas as to the above and what falls into those categories, made me wonder how others measure/comprehend such concepts.

Although it is extreme (and not my belief) take the concept of Hitler and committing mass genocide. A lot of people will say those things were wrong, but why were they wrong? How do we define it?

Just curious here. Sure, it killed the cat, but life would be a lot less diverse without it IMO.

Toodles

Answer 1

Right and wrong are... flexible concepts at best. I suppose it all just depends on experience. Today, we all say that Hitler's committing mass genocide was wrong, or bad, but he himself probably didn't think so. And if he had won the War, then my generation and certainly some generations before us, wouldn't think so either. Also, signals and hand signs mean good things in some parts of the world, and bad things in others. Whether or not it is taught as bad or good makes all the difference, is my guess.
For another thought, the act of killing is seen as a bad thing if unprovoked or on a huge scale. And yet, it is deemed a good act if the person killed is considered bad themselves, or if it is done for one's own or someone else's protection.

Answer 2

I think its basically what we are taught as we grow up and then later its what we see and expereince around us in our day to day lives.

You mention we can ultimately make our own ideas, but at the same time we will be judged by those around us in doing so. In a lot of instances this will be enough to ensure we will end up have similar preferences to good and bad as those around us. I think this has a huge (perhaps bigger than most people realise) effect on how we measure and comprehend what is "good" and what is "bad".

To take a much less controversial situation than Hitler. Think about what you and your friends wear. Lets say for the sake of arguement you all dress reasonably trendy and main stream. what do you think would happen if next time you met up you turned up dressed like a punk rocker with green hair?

Chances are your friends would make you feel pretty uncomfortable, and you would have to deal with that if you wanted to change you concept of what constituted "good" fashion.

I think this goes on all the time in our lives and the pressure comes from loads of different sources like media, friends, family and the justice system. These "cultural" pressures play a big role in our views of good and bad.

To take your Hitler example (i'm not really suggesting this just illustrating) go to the pub and start saying you've had a think about the holocaust and have decided it wasn't actually that bad since Hitler had a point about the Jews. I think you'll find out pretty quickly why its marked in your brain computer as "bad".

Answer 3

Good or right is simply desirable and bad or wrong undesirable. Basically what is desirable or not is ingrained in our being through the experience of what pleases or elates us and what pains or makes us unhappy..... that is to say that it depends on how our body and mind instinctively react to something.

That is the simple way for an individual to understand good or bad and right or wrong. However, there are two other dimensions which need to be taken into consideration.

Firstly it is that we are a social being and therefore, good or right must be defined on the basis of what is good and right for most of the people and not merely for one or few individuals at the cost of others... the norm of collective wellbeing,

Secondly, our experience has shown that what appears to be good for the time being, does not always remain so in course of time... it may turn out to be good just for a while and thereafter on a sustained basis, it proves to be detrimental or damaging. Hence our concept of good and bad or right and wrong takes into account the lasting impact through chain reactions rather than just the initial feeling.

Hope this makes sense. Oh, that was a tough basic question you posed!!

Answer 4

Toodles. great question!

Bad and good are prejudices which the eternal reality cannot recognized. It is right that the world should illustrate the full nature of the infinite, and not merely the particular ideals of man. And as with good and bad, so with ugly and beautiful. These too are subjective and personal terms, which flung at the universe, will be returned to the sender unhonored.

Thanks for asking. Have a great day!

Answer 5

The ideas of good and bad stem from physical sensations of pleasure and pain, which operate to indicate safety and danger to enahance life and prevent death, all respectively. It is really just that simple, but the organic apparatus is not perfect and situations can become very complex even thoguht the basic idea is not.
To sum up: Life is good, Death is bad.
Now whose life and why and how and so forth, complicate things quickly but the basis is sound and pertains to our very being.
Hope that helps.
(as in most philosophical questions it is best to bring the subject back to basics and go from there.. good luck)

Answer 6

there are some things which we humans inherently think of right or wrong. incest,murder, cheating. society builds on these innate tendencies, and there we have concepts of rights and wrongs.but as in the case of hitler as a majority of his population supported him, or atleast were not too much against his ideas, it seems such ideas can be subverted temporary. one major factor was social conformity.

Answer 7

for sure they do. whether the overt employer of slavery that white human beings practiced has been grudgingly abolished, establishments have been put in place to perpetuate a device of domination for generations to return. 1865 grow to be not that throughout the past. interior of america got here the upward thrust of the Ku Klux Klan and comparable agencies which grew to grow to be the blueprint for present day policing. 2 purposes of such communities have been to maintain a device of slavery with the help of retaining sharecroppers coralled. It did not some degree because of the fact 'Cotton' failed interior the south (see W.E.B. DuBois). DuBois fought for the sumptuous of blacks to be knowledgeable because of the fact observed training because of the fact the least confusing ability to take part in democracy. yet another functionality grow to be to intimidate blacks to desert land without remuneration, something that has effects on my family members on the instant. Jim Crow regulations extra enforced a device of seperate and unequal. limited covenants controlling who buys what components and the place, nevertheless exist on the instant (probable on some regulation books, and surely interior the wills and testaments filed away in criminal professional places of work everywhere in the country). Tax abatements for companies to construct in outlying factors permitting lily white cities to pop up over night. Discrimination with the help of banks combating undesirables unfastened get entry to to the economic device. the shown fact that interior of america blacks' splendid to vote is concern to revision because of the fact we are nevertheless not formally recognized as being human. The ammendment that stated a black person is 3/5 of a a guy continues to be a factor of the physique of regulation that governs the land. If whites have been easy, the ammendment that supposedly nullified it might have been taken off the books, inspite of the shown fact that it wasn't. i will upload to this record yet close with a warning that slavery as practiced with the help of Europeans, rather the British, Dutch, and Spanish handed off 10 minutes in the past, and its seed nevertheless sprouts on the instant. Be recommended, the mechanism is in place and would very truly be reimplemented in all its nefarious degradation (from what I see out right here interior the streets), if we don't get our collective @!*# mutually. Earf!

Answer 8

Good is what you want for the yourself, others, and the world around you. Bad is what you do not want for yourself, others, and the world around you. It changes from person to person. Each perspective differs in it's own way.