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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!prls!amdimage!amdcad!decwrl!williams@kirk.DEC (John Williams 223-3402)
From: williams@kirk.DEC (John Williams 223-3402)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: The classic war between Good and Evil
Message-ID: <177@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 27-Aug-85 13:47:52 EDT
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Posted: Tue Aug 27 13:47:52 1985
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	And now, the definition of " GOOD ".

	GOOD enhances life. Moralities are based on perspective, 
that is, a person's past experiences and what he thinks about 
them. He has hopefully learned from his successes and failures, 
and can extract underlying principles behind these. Certain 
things will make him happy, others not. I should note here that 
one of the biggest causes for different moralities is the 
intrinsic inability to accurately distinguish between pain and 
punishment. A psychologist might talk about this for hours, but I 
won't.

	He next considers the present and the future, and 
extrapolates his principles to evaluate whether his morality will 
continue to improve his probability of being happy. He will not 
likely change unless he is experiencing some kind of pain. So, he 
derives a set of principles that reasonably assure his continued 
pleasure optimization. ( NOT meant Hedonistically ) ( Hedonistic 
behaviour and goal oriented behaviour are opposite extremes )

	These principles are then present in the manner that he 
expresses himself. Unavoidably the principles surface in his 
communications. Any conflicts in principle that he has with 
others may also be a source of pain and modification, until he is 
able to reach agreement on the significant ones, or able to 
justify his difference.

	So, " GOOD " is whatever makes you happy. It is only when 
you are happy that you wish to continue to live.

	Ah, but there's a fly in the ointment. We live much too 
short a life to completely explain our moralities in this way. 
There is a part of us that also learns to accept death, and to 
look at it in a way that also makes us happy.

	It is no trivial excercise to define the difference 
between " GOOD " and " BAD ", except to say that it's not always 
what other people tell us.

					John.

	Logic amplifies thought.