*sighs*

[conuly]

My Core 10 (Intro to philosophy) class is going QUITE well, thank you very much, as this professor isn't on serious drugs...

But some of the other students are... are.... *sighs*

Example:
Argument: 1. If there is evil in the world, then God (classicly all good, all powerful) does not exist.
2. There is evil in the world.
3. Therefore, God does not exist.

Student: But that's not true!
Professor: Which part?
Student: The first part!
Professor: Why?
Student: (I swear she was whining) Because God does exist!

Way to insult people who disagree with you. I wouldn't say "that's not true because there's no such thing as God" to an argument. That's rude. Not to mention stupid, really, but let's get back to the word rude. You're supposed to say "I believe" before statements about things that cannot be proven. That way you aren't offending anybody. Even if you think you're completely, totally, without-a-doubt correct, you Don't Do It.

Another student, after hearing Aquinas' argument about first causes (every thing that has a cause must be caused by something else, every caused cause can't be its own cause, if you don't have a first cause the whole system collapses, the first cause is god, therefore god exists) kept arguing that it's wrong (factually, not ethically) to call God a cause because even though God caused everything, he's still not a cause. At all. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

Comments

[conuly]

But do you believe that you can't have trees unless you have grass?

[eofs.livejournal.com]

No, because they aren't opposites. If they were, then we could have trees, but without grass we wouldn't be able to understand trees as a concept. Kinda like... if everyone you knew had black hair, then black hair wouldn't exist for you, it would just be hair. Except not quite like that, but the general principle is the same.

Bear in mind that I've never gone anywhere near philosophy, psychology, any of that - history is my social science of choice. What I'm doing here is applying a concept that is used in film theory that I am vaguely aware is used elsewhere (and I can see if fitting elsewhere.)

[conuly]

But maybe good and evil aren't opposites. Maybe we just think they are because we're perverse. Maybe there really is only good (or let's just say default) and the other doesn't exist.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

You mean kinda like most people think war and peace are opposites? I guess it all depends on your angle. And as I stated earlier, I don't believe in the existance of evil anyway. But as for there just being default... I dunno. I haven't made my mind up yet on whether or not good/bad (which I think are a better binarism than good/evil) exist. It's a tricky philosophical question, and not one to think about on as few hours sleep as I've had.