Clarification/Follow-up by Dark_Crow on 03/15/04 3:05 pm:
What is evil is a moral judgment, I wonder; are humans the only species that that make these judgments, and foremost---how did we even come to make moral judgments about right or wrong or good or bad. From whence did this sense of good and bad behavior stem. This is the final question in my study of philosophy and it is causing all sorts of questions about what I considered closed issues.

Clarification/Follow-up by tonyrey on 03/15/04 3:15 pm:
DC, does evil exist only in the mind?

Clarification/Follow-up by Dark_Crow on 03/15/04 4:00 pm:
There are many who argue that everything we can know is in the mind, or cant be objectively known. Myself, I'm a Realist (Hank is that a surprise) and see the effects of evil all around. GB said something to the effect that until one knows what it means to say something exists there is little more they can know, and I tend to agree. There are some convincing arguments that what exists can only be known through language, I know, I’ve made them. I think the issue of morality is very unsettling, for me anyway. But, to your question---It is not a position I feel I can offer much argument to but, evil is as tangible as anything.

Clarification/Follow-up by tonyrey on 03/15/04 4:19 pm:
Ken, how does one determine whether the judgment that something is evil is appropriate?

Clarification/Follow-up by tonyrey on 03/15/04 4:21 pm:
DC, why do you find the issue of morality unsettling?

Clarification/Follow-up by XCHOUX on 03/15/04 4:35 pm:
Evil is personal.

Forgot the apostrophe in my answer.

Clarification/Follow-up by Dark_Crow on 03/15/04 4:43 pm:
What is unsettling for me is the question “just how did the human species develop a sense of morality?”. To strive to be virtuous. Where does tenderness come from; exemplified in spectacular feats of self-sacrifice, as well as in the countless small kindnesses that fill our everyday lives. A vicious, biological amorality on the one hand and a divinely inspired transcendence of nature in the other.

Clarification/Follow-up by rosends on 03/15/04 8:01 pm:
Is it possible to split the question in to 2 parts:

why is evil evil

why is evil considered evil?