Of course, it is quite difficult to answerthe question: “What is the meaning of the concept of“ good ”?” - but we will try. This task is difficult because in the concept of being good and evil are absolute, and when it comes to individual societies and cultures, everyone has their own ideas about good and bad.
No point here to talk about specificreligious ideas, it is more productive to formulate the general principle of distinguishing between good and evil. We offer the reader the following option: to call good what is life, and evil is what counteracts it.
For example, why you need to help others?Because it makes their lot easier. Mercy, compassion is good, because it gives another person hope, signals him that he is not alone. Of course, the basis of our understanding of good and evil is the Christian faith, since Western culture is built on this basis, and Russia is still more West than East, especially now. Even those who have never discovered the Bible in their lives know what is good and what is bad. And the basis of this intuitive knowledge is the truth of the Old and New Testaments (more, of course, the latter). While it is not very clear, what is the meaning of the concept of "good"? But do not worry, everything will fall into place when we proceed to the section on the relativity of morality.
According to the agreement, we will consider evilwhich is repugnant to life and serves death and destruction. By the way, so that the reader does not think that we are smartly reinventing the bicycle here, let's say: Erich Fromm used a similar classification (if someone doesn’t know what a scientist looks like, see the photo). The philosopher distinguished between "necrophilic" and "productive" character. The essence of the first is in the total destruction of oneself and the world, and the second is in the love of all living things. Now our conscience is clear, so we continue.
So, from this point of view, torturing a cat or dog is bad, because the suffering of animals hurts them.
If a person is really kind, he will not be able tooffend the smaller brothers. In general, it is much easier to destroy than to build. Hurt a cat or child is easier than raising a son, daughter or pet.
Now, when it is more or less known what meaning is invested in the concept of "good" and "evil", we can proceed to how things really are, that is, to the relativity of good and bad.
В большинстве религий самоубийство – тяжкий грех It is precisely because a person decides when to leave, thus helping death directly and reaching the apogee of self-destruction. But modern views are somewhat different. It is difficult to distinguish between good and evil in them. For example, the surgeon sometimes causes unprecedented suffering to a person, but only to make the patient live easier in the future. On the one hand, the doctor does evil, but in the long run, it transforms into goodness.
Or, for example, the problem of euthanasia.Death is the ultimate evil, it would seem. But life is sometimes more painful. Now we will not catch up with fear. But sometimes a person continues to live only as a biological body, and this condition involves fantastic pain, and the big question is whether to consider this life. Ethical philosophers express unequivocally: euthanasia is evil. They just proceed from the fact that any form of life is sacred, as for ordinary Western people (euthanasia is prohibited in Russia), they sometimes prefer the premature death of a long painful life. There is a contradiction of theory and practice. Thus, the question of what meaning is embedded in the concept of "good" remains open. Therefore, everyone is free to solve the moral problem at its discretion.
