I’ve been meditating on the ideas of Buddhist and Stoic philosophy. They’re surprisingly similar! It has lead me to this question… Is evil an illusion?
My thought process:
1. All things are in flux, i.e. no physical entity, that we can perceive, is permanent
2. All observers, as physical entities, including ourselves are impermanent.
3. Therefore there is no unchanging self.
4. Evil requires a frame of reference.
5. All frames of reference vary as all people are changing at all times.
6. There is no universally correct frame of reference.
7. Therefore any ”self”, any person that has or will ever exist will not have a privileged, constant, way of determining evil.
8. Considering 1 through 7 it seems that there is in fact no universal ”evil”. i.e. it’s subjective
9. It follows then evil cannot be “true” like gravity for example. It is always dependent on whoever is doing the observing.
10. Therefore evil doesn’t have an independent existence.
Originally posted on facebook April of 2019
M. Y. Z. 