Good or bad?

[Admilu]

So I have a philosophical question for you guys. I'm guessing I'm asking on the wrong forum -_-" But why not?

So how do people detirmine whether a person is good or bad? Before you say "Sinners and criminals are bad, all just people are good" try and think of WHY they are classified as good, that's what I'm asking.

[Ratsu]

Good or Bad.. how do I sum it up? Well in a nut shell.
-Dog takes bread and eats it.-
-Man scolds dog for eating the bread-
-Dog says to man "Who are you to judge me, man kind has waged war against eachother, and killed millions. All I did was eat some bread."-
-Man pauses-
-Man says "Would you like some more bread?"-

Well its how I see it anyway. >.< I think that conveys what I am trying to say.

[Erranty]

Ahh, we meet again.

Its never as black and white as "Good and bad".

Besides, only the people who win will be considered good.

To me there are many types of people.
A Good person is someone who is helpful, and tries to make life easier.
A bad person does thing they know will make life harder, just because they want someone's life to be harder.
A Visionary is someone who is willing to do bad things for good reasons.
An Idiot is someone willing to do good things for bad reasons, or none at all.

[Kyero Fox]

Watch Code Geass and Death Note they'll tell ya

[zaseo]

In a way there is, and is not a such thing as good, or bad. Someones good can be a other persons bad.
Now in a way I think that someone can be morally right base on choice which makes them follow a positive path.
Good is usually means light while bad is usually means dark.
To a bad guy crime would be good as long as he is not caught.
It more about positive, and negative philosophy that determines the nature of a human.

[S1lentOp]

So how do people detirmine whether a person is good or bad?

That is entirely contingent upon how you define what is morally good and what is morally evil. Although the entire notion of characterizing someone as evil or good is a bit of a caricature and reinforces the false presumption that the world can be seen in black-and-white absolute terms in a moral sense.

[-Loveless-]

I try to take in everything about the person. Past, present, personality, the way he/she was treated in society. But really, I think all people are good till they piss me off. ...Me...well, that's all I have to say.

[AuraTwilight]

"Don't be an asshole."

[S1lentOp]

"Don't be an asshole."

"Don't be a dick," so saith the Lord.

[Kuukai]

"Don't be an asshole."

"Don't be a dick," so saith the Lord.

Are you guys trying to imply that there's a false dichotomy here, and we should instead be looking towards Team America's trichotomy of personality types to truly understand the people of the world?

[S1lentOp]

"Don't be an asshole."

"Don't be a dick," so saith the Lord.

Are you guys trying to imply that there's a false dichotomy here, and we should instead be looking towards Team America's trichotomy of personality types to truly understand the people of the world?

There are only two kinds of people in the world: People who love freedom and terrorists.

[Admilu]

AHHH CRAP! I'm really sorry... I just wrote everything below and the original question before realising I asked the wrong thing. Okay so now that we've figured out how we see people as either good or bad perhaps we can dig deeper and answer my next question "How do we classify good and bad?". That's the question I had in mind when I wrote all this:

kay, alot of what I was looking for and alot that was getting quite off topic...

This could take me a while to sift through but basically what I have to say goes towards most of the comments left.

Good or Bad.. how do I sum it up? Well in a nut shell.
-Dog takes bread and eats it.-
-Man scolds dog for eating the bread-
-Dog says to man "Who are you to judge me, man kind has waged war against eachother, and killed millions. All I did was eat some bread."-
-Man pauses-
-Man says "Would you like some more bread?"-

Well its how I see it anyway. >.< I think that conveys what I am trying to say.

Okay, I get what you're saying but you missed what I said. You're saying straight out that murder is bad. I'm asking "Why is murder bad?" And remember when answering you can't say "because this is good and this is bad" and you can't say "some people say this is good and some people say this is bad"... that's not the answer I want.

Ahh, we meet again.

Its never as black and white as "Good and bad".

Besides, only the people who win will be considered good.

To me there are many types of people.
A Good person is someone who is helpful, and tries to make life easier.
A bad person does thing they know will make life harder, just because they want someone's life to be harder.
A Visionary is someone who is willing to do bad things for good reasons.
An Idiot is someone willing to do good things for bad reasons, or none at all.

Yes, you're right that it's never as simple as "good or bad", however, you made it that way in your comment by saying "this is good and this is bad". You appraoched it slightly different than Ratsu but you still had the same concept of "this is good and this is bad".

SO from what I've gathered so far it seems that good and bad is detirmined in that when someone says something is good, it is good. When someone says something is bad, it is bad. I have more to add to that but I'll just look at a few more replies first.

So how do people detirmine whether a person is good or bad?

That is entirely contingent upon how you define what is morally good and what is morally evil. Although the entire notion of characterizing someone as evil or good is a bit of a caricature and reinforces the false presumption that the world can be seen in black-and-white absolute terms in a moral sense.

Yes, yes, yes! That is what I'm asking, how do people detirmine good or bad? Yes it is hard to see it so simply but so far people seem to agree that sinners and criminals are bad where as All just people are good. SO one could assume that when a majority of people see something as good, it is good and when the majority see it as bad it is bad. An example is this: Murder is bad. Right? The majority of people see murder as bad and so murder is classified as bad. Now what if the majority of people saw murder as good? Would it become good? This case already applies to war. People see soldiers murdering as good. It seems some what in-accurate when I put it liek that but it's true. Yes some people still see murdering in war as bad but some people see murdering not in war as good.

Now. If you all agree that murder is bad and good and yada yada what I was saying just then, perhaps we can get back to my original question of how do these things start being seen as good and bad?

[shadowstalker]

I guess it all depends on the individual, in some cases murder could be seen as self-defense while others it could be seen the other way. so good and bad can only be seen as a general view on it such as rape. this is one of the things that can definitely be seen as bad.

[AuraTwilight]

"Don't be a dick," so saith the Lord.

Are you guys trying to imply that there's a false dichotomy here, and we should instead be looking towards Team America's trichotomy of personality types to truly understand the people of the world?

There are only two kinds of people in the world: People who love freedom and terrorists.

Why do you hate America, Kuukai?

[nobodyknows]

as far as I'm concerned, good and bad are all subjective :S. Thus, in my eyes, neither of those things exist

[Admilu]

I guess it all depends on the individual, in some cases murder could be seen as self-defense while others it could be seen the other way. so good and bad can only be seen as a general view on it such as rape. this is one of the things that can definitely be seen as bad.

Yeah we already discussed these ideas. What I'm asking now is HOW do people decide upon what is good and what is bad? See, I agree with this fella here:

as far as I'm concerned, good and bad are all subjective :S. Thus, in my eyes, neither of those things exist

There are no real good or bads, people have come up with this system of good and bad on their own. It all has to do with values (I think... this is why I'm bringing it all up cause I'm trying to back up my theory by having other people agree with meh). Because most people value life, murder becomes bad, but, at the same time people value freedom and so soldiers murdering becomes good. The whole rape thing. Woman value uhh... I think the word prosperity sort of fits here? They value a sort of freedom in choice/prosperity/power/respect and so they see rape as bad because it strips them of those things. Men, having the value of beiong good, also tend to see rape as bad... sometimes.... Some have... interesting fetishes?

So now that we detirmine that good and bad, in the case of general people, is detirmined by values... how do people detirmine values? WHy are things seen as valuable???

[Assassin]

There is no good or bad there is just darkness and rules

[AuraTwilight]

That doesn't even make any goddamned sense. Darkness and "rules" aren't even a dichotomy.

[Assassin]

That doesn't even make any goddamned sense. Darkness and "rules" aren't even a dichotomy.

whatever..that's what think..have fun..^^

[marthwmaster]

I agree with whoever said the definition of good and evil depend on the person. As for me, I don't see good and evil as opposing forces; instead, I see evil the result of people acting contrary to God's will. Bad things happen because of the continued separation between God's perfection and Man's imperfection. I realize many of you won't share this belief, but that said, the aspects of good and evil that don't hinge on one's religious background are more or less universally agreed upon. It's just difficult to define the two in a completely secular way - or in the way I've just described, for that matter - because everyone has different beliefs, and ideas shaped by those beliefs.