What exactly is good and bad? (In terms of living creatures).
For many months now a particularly deep and difficult question has been on my mind – what is good, and what is bad (in the sense of us living creatures).
After many days of thought, I concluded that pain was bad, and happiness was good. Of course my answers may perhaps seem rather obvious, or even ridiculous that I even doubted the apparently obvious conclusions – but I felt I needed to know exactly why this was the case. And here is what I found:
I took the question right back to life and death. Is death bad? For if death is not bad, then pain is not bad either. Same with life. Is life good? For if life is good, happiness is good.
Pain is associated with death in the sense that pain is a warning sent from the brain to alert a creature that they will be wounded (resulting in a risk of blood loss, infection, and thus leading to likely death (depending)) or they will die instantly or within a short time frame. Thus, pain is a warning of death.
Why do creatures fear death? Why does a creature receive warnings when death could be close? Perhaps this is because of a living creature's natural instincts to continue on with life, to be able to experience the activities that promote the feelings happiness. Happiness seems to be what animals live for. But does this mean happiness is the greatest emotion of them all – an emotion that does not rely on a creature to be successful in the uncontrolled battle of life, but simply alive? For creatures are capable of feeling happiness from the smallest things. Whether it be a harmonious combination of sounds (music, in the case of humans) or the warmth of sun after a cold night.
This brings me to my final question. Would there be happiness if there was no pain? Would we not be able to contrast times of difficulty with the blissful times of joy? And thus life would just be mediocre? I conclude we need not worry about this questions, for there will always be pain, fear and death. These feelings (or warnings) and occurrences are just the result of living in an unplanned, uncontrolled universe with a vast array of possibilities. But I do believe we humans have earned a “gift” that no other living thing is yet able to possess, and that is the ability to not have to inflict pain or fear onto any other creature (excluding non-animal life, as we still have to eat). What is such a terrible shame is that so many people have not realised this gift, and refuse to take advantage of this priceless treasure.
After many days of thought, I concluded that pain was bad, and happiness was good. Of course my answers may perhaps seem rather obvious, or even ridiculous that I even doubted the apparently obvious conclusions – but I felt I needed to know exactly why this was the case. And here is what I found:
I took the question right back to life and death. Is death bad? For if death is not bad, then pain is not bad either. Same with life. Is life good? For if life is good, happiness is good.
Pain is associated with death in the sense that pain is a warning sent from the brain to alert a creature that they will be wounded (resulting in a risk of blood loss, infection, and thus leading to likely death (depending)) or they will die instantly or within a short time frame. Thus, pain is a warning of death.
Why do creatures fear death? Why does a creature receive warnings when death could be close? Perhaps this is because of a living creature's natural instincts to continue on with life, to be able to experience the activities that promote the feelings happiness. Happiness seems to be what animals live for. But does this mean happiness is the greatest emotion of them all – an emotion that does not rely on a creature to be successful in the uncontrolled battle of life, but simply alive? For creatures are capable of feeling happiness from the smallest things. Whether it be a harmonious combination of sounds (music, in the case of humans) or the warmth of sun after a cold night.
This brings me to my final question. Would there be happiness if there was no pain? Would we not be able to contrast times of difficulty with the blissful times of joy? And thus life would just be mediocre? I conclude we need not worry about this questions, for there will always be pain, fear and death. These feelings (or warnings) and occurrences are just the result of living in an unplanned, uncontrolled universe with a vast array of possibilities. But I do believe we humans have earned a “gift” that no other living thing is yet able to possess, and that is the ability to not have to inflict pain or fear onto any other creature (excluding non-animal life, as we still have to eat). What is such a terrible shame is that so many people have not realised this gift, and refuse to take advantage of this priceless treasure.
Comments (10)
Bad--the opposite of the above.
I infer that our notions of good and bad are not entirely subjective. It would be irrational to suggest that pain is good, except in cases where it is instrumental in preventing something worse. I find myself unable to be a thoroughgoing moral subjectivist. It flies in the face of what I know about happiness and pain. (But I'm not a thoroughgoing moral objectivist either.)
As for death, since death as far as I know is non-existence, it can only be neutral. The reason animals fear death is not because death is bad to experience, but because the fear of death is in their genes; animals whose genes don't prompt them to fear death don't survive to pass their genes on, so the genes that don't prompt fear of death have generally died out.
Take for example: You miss a plane you needed to catch.
The plane crashes killing all the passengers.
Missing the plane initially is considered a bad outcome however adding in more information that situation has now become a good outcome. With the situation barely altering. Remember if you had caught the flight it was a favorable outcome right up until it crashes. So the concept of "Good or bad" is far too liquid to nail down a specific definition.
But in terms of what is good and what is bad for living creatures (like our esteemed selves), "that which helps us flourish is good". Good food, fresh air, quality sleep, exercise, clean water, adequate shelter, and so forth. Infectious diseases (strep, staff, pneumococcal, plague, malaria, ebola, zika, etc.) are bad because they either stop us from existing altogether or they impede our flourishing. So are serious injuries.
We could list pages and pages of specific things that contribute to flourishing, or do not, but the general principle is sufficient.
So, good food is better than bad food -- we flourish more with good food. Good sex is better than bad sex. However as Seinfeld says, "Even when sex is bad its, you know, OK."
Good vs not good is an ethical issue.
Pain vs pleasure is an Epicurean issue.
Etc.
Very true! It's a vastly interesting subject, that has many "levels" to it. I shall certainly continue thinking about it and consider all the different scenarios. Thanks for sharing your view!