Category: Evaluation

What Makes An Action Evil?

What are the criteria for an action to be considered evil? Can you categorize behavior as evil, and if so, how?

This question is in contrast to last week’s question, “What makes an action good?”

Many of the same issues arise with evil actions as did with good ones. You might, for instance, decide an action is evil if it harms people. However, what if there was no intention to harm people at all, but it was an inadvertent outcome? Do intentions matter at all, or is it only the impact that counts?

Perhaps an action is chosen specifically to to help people you care about. This would seem good, but it helps at the expense of people you don’t know or don’t care about. Does that constitute evil? If you are forced to prioritize between some inside your “in” group or out of it, inside wins nearly every time.

Consider the reverse of last week’s conclusion: Think about the decisions or actions you are most ashamed of, that you feel were made in haste or in error. Do those decisions have something in common? Do evil actions share some traits or properties?

Related questions: What is your definition of evil? Why do we hate? Is it a cruel world? What gives a person value?

What Makes An Action Good?

How can you determine if an action that you take is a good one? What are the properties that “good” actions share?

If you want to lead a good life, what is the best way to go about doing that? The most direct way is to have most of your deeds be good ones. You are a good person who led a good life if you performed a significant number of good actions.

But what, exactly, does that mean?

If you are evaluating two options, how might you go about choosing the better one? It might be easy if the two options are extremes. Which is better: to volunteer at a soup kitchen, or to kick a puppy?

However, most choices in life are not that clear cut. Some can be downright difficult, and many choices must be made with incomplete information that makes it almost impossible to determine which is better in advance.

And there are other considerations, as well. How might you rate one action that benefits your family more, and another that benefits the community? How do you prioritize the present or the near future versus the far future?

In general, though, actions that fall into the category of “good” may have some common attributes. If you think back to the things in your life that you are most proud of, or choices you think turned out to be good decisions, what do they have in common? Can you find a common thread to your good actions?

Related questions: What does it mean to be a good person? Are people inherently good? When have you made good from a bad situation? How do you determine what matters?

How Are You Holding Up?

As so many things are in flux, and uncertainty seems to be everywhere you look, how are you holding up?

It is safe to say that the last month has been a busy one. Regardless of how you feel about the changes that are happening, change, by itself, can be very difficult.

In general, we have a preference for the status quo. We understand it, even if we see the flaws and wish things were better. Managing a known, imperfect system, for many of us, is better than introducing changes that might well make things worse (even if they could make things better).

We crave stability. So much so, that many of us devote much of our lives to creating a stable world.

Of course, that stability is an illusion. At any time, your house might burn down, and you could lose everything you own. Your life could be turned upside down with an unfortunate medical diagnosis. An accident can happen to anyone, regardless of age or general health.

In such extreme circumstances, it is important to monitor your own well-being. Knowing when you need a break, or support from loved ones, or an inspirational speech, is important.

With that in mind, here’s the question: How are you holding up? Are you in denial, engaged as never before, or hiding in bed under your covers? What is your mental state in these unusual times?

Related questions: How do you deal with major life changes? How do you perform self-care? Are we too busy? How are we doing?

What Brought You The Most Enjoyment This Year?

As the year comes to a close, it is common to look back at the high points. What brought you the most enjoyment this year?

This last year (like any year) had some difficult moments. Ongoing wars, complete with atrocities, were hard to watch, yet equally difficult to look away from. The presidential election seemed to drag on forever. Natural disasters happened with alarming regularity. And so on.

When so many negative things happen, it can be tempting to focus solely on them. It was a bad year, you might say, because so many bad things happened.

However, that approach is short-sighted. While it is true that many bad things occurred, it is also true that many good things happened as well. Over the course of an entire year, it has to be the case that many things, good and bad, are bound to happen.

And remembering the good things is important! Even if — and maybe especially if — more bad things than good happen, it is necessary to remind yourself that there is good in the world.

Next year will be filled with both good and bad things, too. It very well may be the case that there will be more bad than good then, as well. In order to withstand an onslaught of bad news, a positive outlook, filled with hope, is essential. An excellent way to get a positive outlook is to think back on all the good things that happened.

With that in mind, what are your personal high points? What were our collective high points? What brought you the most enjoyment this year?

Related questions: Are you worried about the coming year? What news from the last year made you optimistic? Why don’t you know what makes you happy? Optimistic or pessimistic?

 

How Are We Interconnected?

Deep passions can serve to divide us, including politics, religion, race, and others. And yet, we are all interconnected. In what ways?

While it might seem that there are seemingly endless ways to be different from one another, in reality we all depend and rely on each other. This is true despite our beliefs, biology, or background.

It might be tempting to think that you have little in common with a neighbor who votes for a different political party than you. And yet, you are both part of the same community. Everyone has a role to play in that community to make sure it works for us all.

Maybe you pray to a different divine being than someone in another country. You might not even speak the same language, literally. But we all live on the same planet, under the same sun, moon, and stars.

Surely you are drastically different from a member of another species! Maybe one is a mammal, and the other is a plant, or perhaps an insect. Yet, we are all part of the same ecosystem.

When so much seems to divide us, it can be helpful to think instead about all the things we have in common. And even if we lack commonalities, we are interconnected in many different ways.

What are some of the ways you are connected to the person across the street? Across the country? What ties you to the animals that visit your backyard at night? What about the fleas that live on those animals? Or the water in the ocean? How are we interconnected?

Related questions: How are humans like other animals? How are they different? What do we have in common? How do you strengthen a connection with someone?