Where Do Good and Evil
Come From?
HZB3M – Mr. Raso
Philosophy – The Big Questions
Where Do Morals Come From?
• Morality refers to what is right
and what is wrong
• Where do your morals come
from?
• Is a moral code an essential
part of every human being?
Do Right and Wrong Come from God?
• Some philosophers link moral
principles to God
• To be morally good is to obey
God’s will
• God as the one who gave
people a moral standard to live
by
Colonialism and Racism in Canada
• After the arrival of the Europeans, First
Nations peoples were subjugated to rules and
regulations created by the Europeans
• They colonized on the belief that they were
“Christianizing” the “savage” Natives
• Forced Aboriginal Canadians into Residential
Schools
• Forced them to only speak English, dress like a
“European”, and pray to the European God –
eliminating First Nations’ traditions and
practices
“White Man’s Burden” Kipling
• Rudyard Kipling wrote the “White
Man’s Burden” a poem 1899
• For the white man to colonize and
rule other nations for their sake
• The policy as a noble enterprise
• Eurocentric Racism and ideas to
dominate the developing world
Are Right and Wrong Separate from God?
• Plato – wrote a dialogue, The Euthyphro, to
address the issue of morality an the Gods
• Explores ideas through conversations
between people
• Socrates asks Euthyphro whether the Gods
live what is good because it actually is good,
or whether things are called good simply
because the Gods love them?
• Morality if either something that exist
independently of the Gods and discovered
by them, or it is created by the Gods
• Both cannot be true at the same time
• St. Thomas Aquinas – didn’t
believe in Greek Gods, but did
believe in God
• Faced with a similar dilemma
• Believed that God endorsed a
moral standard that God
discovered
• God instilled this moral standard
in human beings when God
created them
• William of Ockham (1285
– 1349)
• God invented standards of
what is good and what is
evil
• People should obey them
• People chose to obey or
not to obey of their own
free will
• Known as the Divine
Command Theory
• If God is the creator of morality, and then decided to
change the rules at whim, God would allow murder or
theft on some days, but not on others
• If morality does exist somewhere outside of God, then
there must be rules that God must obey
• If God had to obey rules, God’s power would be lessened
If God Exists, Why is there Evil?
• “A line which I often thought was a very plausible one,
that as a matter of fact this world that we know was
made by the devil at a moment when God wasn’t
looking. There is a good deal to be said for that, and I am
not concerned to refute it.” – Bertrand Russell
• If God is all-powerful and all-good, and if
God witnesses evil, does God have an
obligation to stop evil?
• Human beings have the free will to make
choices
• God does not intervene with personal
decision making, however, people must
live with the consequences of their choices
and actions
• Morality can only apply to rational beings
that make choices
• Bertrand Russell said that a God cannot
allow someone to suffer, it is either that
God permits evil, or God does not exist!
Does Being Good Just Come Naturally?
• There are various ideas for the origins of
morality
• The capability of human reason is a
special thing
• Instrumental in constructing human
moral codes and behaviours
• Moral Rationalism – term that describes
moral theories emphasizing the use of
human reason to discover moral truths –
two such theories are:
1) natural law theory and 2) best reasons
approach
Does Morality Come from Reason?
• Natural Law Theory – the standards that
govern human behaviours are derived from
the very nature of human beings
• Human thinking processes produce moral
beliefs and judgments
• Since you know what pain feels like, you
know not to inflict it on others (reason tells
you this)
• Human reason produces the same results
among all people
• A similarity of moral codes within various
religions, cultures, and individuals
Does Logic Produce Perfect Morality?
• Best Reasons Approach –
maintains that human reason can
lead people to moral behaviours
• Moral actions are the
consequences of people thinking
about questions
• People act accordingly with what is
the most rational thing to do (best
reasons)
• Since human reasoning isn’t
perfect, moral errors occur
• Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804)
• The moral worth of people depends
entirely on their doing their moral duty
• You do not need to know someone’s
motives to know whether they are doing
their duty – all you need to know is
whether they are acting in accord with the
moral rule he called the categorical
imperative
• “act as though the maximum of your
action were by your will to become
universal law of nature – allows for no
exceptions”
Universal Morality or Relative Morality?
• Protagoras (490-420BCE) from Greece believed that
morality is relative
• A custom that can change over time or from place to place
• James Rachels believes that morality is universal, there is a
core set of values that are common to all societies, and they
are necessary for any society to exist
3 Main Universal Moral Values:
• Care for your children
• Tell the truth
• Do not murder
A Global Ethic