My Inquiry seeks to find out what evil even is and if it even present. How has it really connected to the world we live in. How we’ve all got it inside of us and how it’s shaping and viewing what we call world around us. Something deep and straightly focused.
For such, I have instituted my idea to be split in 3 different research webs; I want to make it disposable for our insights so I’ll be researching in
- Viewing our most primitive socialization forms and how evil could have searched its way in humanity and how it’s developed to be through: For me it’s important to plot down from it’s littlest starch to how Humans even learned what evil was in our most natural instincts and in our simplest friction of interaction. Now I believe in our culture it transcended as a manner of socialization dispute, an Idea further investigated through the rest of my Inquiry.
- Investigating our current sense of Business Model: This will also be a great area to strike in for our comprehension of evil. I believe the running system we have our current basic survival hides a lot behind the facade of money; Touching base with topics such as prestige, despaired sense of desperation, marketing’s poor internal face, etc will commonly be spoken of and as-well I believe can make a great facilitated impact.
- Observing streams of personal expression such as Art, Fashions and Scientific desire: From a more Indirect source it’s going on a ramp of understanding the sensations our society goes through while taking in shape of our hints of evil in a slight end.
SOURCES WANTED
- “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” by Christopher R. Browning
- Analyzes how ordinary individuals can commit atrocities under social pressure and authority, providing critical insights into the origins of evil in societal dynamics.
- “The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge” by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann
- Explores how societal norms and perceptions are constructed, which can provide context for how evil becomes normalized in specific environments.
- “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst” by Robert Sapolsky
- A multidisciplinary look at the biological and environmental factors driving human behavior, including violence and cruelty.
- “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil” by Hannah Arendt
- Investigates the concept of “banality of evil” through the lens of Adolf Eichmann’s trial, offering philosophical and practical insights into systemic evil.
- “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined” by Steven Pinker
- While focused on the decline of violence over time, this book addresses humanity’s capacity for both good and evil, rooted in our evolutionary history.
To my current human comprehension evil has been the compression of our natural instincts, like gathering food, hunting for survival, physical stimulation, socializing, self-worth placed in need to stafisfy one selves, sexual interaction, finding stable lifestyle, growing into better animal hierarchy. That for society’s development have been evolved in right and wrong settlements for humans. In that exact order how these needs have grown into sinsful manners go: Greed, Exploitation, Physical abuse, prestige and lust, sexual harrasement, unstablity and corruption, and, inflated agos and prestige. Fun fact to speak of, when our natural instincts become lost in our ego, this instantly portrays as envy, it’s our learned emotional reaction to fuel this.
Hi David!
Your inquiry is really thought-provoking! Your approach to examining evil through humanity’s primitive socialization is fascinating. Understanding how “evil” might have been perceived in our earliest interactions truly does offer insight into how morality evolved alongside societal development. Your exploration of evil in the business model is very unique as well. I think delving into how capitalism may perpetuate certain “evil” behaviors, like greed or exploitation, is also a direction you could branch off into.
One thing I’d like to comment on is the idea that evil stems from compressing natural instincts. While I see where you’re coming from, I fear I’d need some more convincing – perhaps not all societal regulations that curb instincts (like laws against theft) are inherently negative. What do you think about the idea that some suppression of instinct is necessary for collective good?
You might enjoy The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo. I learned about it in my psychology class! It aligns well with your themes of the dynamics of evil.
Excited to read more!
Laura
Hello David
This inquiry was defenitely not one that I was expecting to read today but its quite intresting nontheless. Going through the emotions that make us human in an introspective way is always interesting and you come out as a more solved person normally. One of the things you briefly touched on was law and how we see it through a moral lens. If you go back far enough law originally stemmed from our religous beliefs and realizing how morality can shape how we act. Religion is one of those things that if you go far back enough in you’ll see that most of our societal norms stemmed from it, and a lot of people criticize religion for what they saw as evil back in the day and it not aligning with some of the stuff of today. It is still incredibly important to recognize that without it our concept of morals are rewarding those who do good in our world and punishing those who we see as evil.
An educational video I highly recommed is this short documentary that explains the development of religion in a sociatal sense. Keep up the good work though this was pretty fun to read.
https://youtu.be/V9mFNgu6Cww?si=mGbj-1tHP08duFhc