To begin with, it should be noted that good and evil are obvious antonyms. They mutually exclude each other. To bring a couple of such concepts can be easy: just draw an analogy with the disease and health.
Evil is a relative concept
These concepts are multifaceted, and therefore relative. What is “good” and “evil” cannot be determined unambiguously and precisely.
Discussions about good and evil have been going on for a long time, since the days of ancient Greek philosophers. This problem haunts many minds in our time. An individual will not be able to define good and evil, being guided only by public opinion. In fact, this is pointless due to the different views of different age, social and other groups. Each of us can have a different view of such concepts, and that is why they, as mentioned earlier, are multifaceted.
It’s not a secret to anyone that when a person performs an action, he is primarily concerned about not creating problems for himself. Other people are interested in him secondarily. If the act has a negative connotation, the person tries to commit it in such a way as to present it in a better light.
Do not forget about egoism, which is to some extent present in each of us. It is the reason that ideas about evil and good are changing. In the minds of some people, evil is the commission of criminal acts. In the minds of others, crimes are not evil, because they are justified by this very egoism.
good and evil
One of the concepts of goodness can be traced using the following comparisons. Let the world be like an ordinary human body. In this case, there should be no doubt that it consists of cells. There is a negative effect that destroys a particular cell. Then it will begin to destroy the body further, a chain reaction will start.
Thus, we can draw the appropriate conclusion: to achieve good, all world systems, its constituent elements must interact with each other to the extent that they will have only a positive impact, without destruction. Then good can be called harmonious relations between world parts. And evil is a manifestation of the violation of harmonious connections.
How does a fight happen?
The struggle between evil and good takes place not only on a global, global scale, but also in the smallest format: in our minds. It is impossible to trust the reasoning of an individual person on this subject, since everyone has a certain view and a certain point of view on a particular issue.
Let’s try again to give an example so that everything falls into place. The already smoking up and down topic of smoking clearly demonstrates the current situation. Most people who do not smoke consider this process to be evil. Evidence? Smoking has a detrimental effect on the health of the individual. Few? Smoking has a negative effect on the health of the smoker's children if he decides to start them (and the likelihood of this is quite high). What are the children to blame?
Approximately this train of thought is laid in the head of almost every non-smoker. However, smokers in many situations try to defend themselves and say that the smoking process can calm the nerves, relax, and so on. And so it turns out that for some people smoking acts as evil, and for others as good and salvation. And this is only one of the examples that can be given on this issue.
What is the contradiction?
Understanding good and evil is just as relevant as the eternal question regarding the meaning of life. The contradiction of concepts is most likely determined by the cultural principles and morals characteristic of a particular period. Again, we run into the need to provide a clear example that can clearly demonstrate the situation. Fortunately, there are many of them in history, but we will turn to a rather striking example that connects the Soviet era with our days.
As you know, in Soviet times it was believed that a terrible evil - is to take the currency and exchange it in the market. In addition, various kinds of speculation, as well as attempts to speculate, provoked a corresponding reaction from society. Now no one is saying that this is unacceptable. Along with the passage of time, principles and manners have changed. And with them the concept of evil has changed.
The concepts of good and evil now
An evil person in the minds of modern people appears as a certain malefactor who committed a criminal act, or as a person of a nasty character. This also includes the regular use of alcohol, inadequacy, the constant use of foul language in speech. You can list a dozen or two more criteria that can describe an evil person.
The border between good and evil, in fact, does not have sufficiently clear outlines. Moreover, these two opposing concepts may in some cases be mixed up. If a she-wolf killed one animal in order to feed her children, is it good or evil? A very difficult question. The same thing happens in many other cases. At first glance, a kind person can, through inaction, contribute to the commission of absolutely terrible acts.
All this is the reason that philosophers continue to argue about evil and good in our time. It is unlikely that the issue will cease to be relevant after dozens and hundreds of years.