WARNING! Philosophical Content!- What Does it Mean for Something to be Bad?

[ArcanePedro]

When does something become bad? What makes an act, an inaction or an idea bad?
After thinking about if an idea can ever really be a bad one, I started thinking how do you know if something is good or bad? Good and bad are both based on perspectives and experiences and as such there is no universal standard for 'Bad'.
All opinions welcome, thread done strictly for interesting discussion, no flaming etc etc.

 

[Who Dares Wins]

First we have the moral "bad" something that we were born with and it grows as you get older.
Then we have the logical "bad" where if something has little to no "good" payoffs.
Finally we have the social "bad", if it's different from what "we" like and know, it is "bad".

This post could use a little more detail and polish, but frankly I'm too tired for it.

 

[Laser Priest]

Bad is subjective and based on what people like.

If it displeases them, they see it as bad. For example, I quite enjoy flaying my victims, but they don't seem to enjoy it all that much.

 

[Emergent System]

"Philosophical content"...? Something is "bad" when you don't like it. There's nothing complicated about it. What makes something "bad" is slightly more interesting, but what the feeling itself is is pretty straight-forward.

 

[yanipheonu]

I think I'll need to pull out the "All I know is I know nothing" on this. I have my own moral codes, but there are very few truly universal rules for good or bad.

I guess you may be able to look at instinct, like death and danger being bad for almost everyone, unless you're crazy or something.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Bad
Adjective: Of poor quality; inferior or defective.

Uh...that's your answer. But if you mean 'bad' as in 'evil', then...nothing. I actually refuse to use the words 'good', 'evil', 'wrong', or 'bad' to describe things, since they're so incredibly subjective that the meaning changes between any two people. (Unless using the actual definition. Like, "That movie was bad." or "That was the wrong turn...")

 

[Fappy]

I don't know what makes something or someone "Bad", but I know what these "bad" guys look like this:

Spoiler

 

[WolfThomas]

Euthyphro, pretty much that.

I'd have said /thread but I didn't want to leave a low content post and that would be "bad".

 

[Slimshad]

Bad means not liking. To say something is bad is to be subjective. Maybe you hate something that someone else likes, so no one is right or wrong. Not much else to explain.

 

[Saelune]

Bad is something that negatively affects someone. Often when it is by someone else. Murder, rape, general violence, bigotry, milk past expiration...

 

[RaNDM G]

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." -- William Shakespeare

 

[Twilight_guy]

Good and bad are defined by society. You personally might have your own morality on good and bad but the will of society imposes itself and defines what it sees as good and bad and enforces those rules and teaches those rules to people to acculturate them into their own notion of good and bad.

 

[Nerfherder17]

I think a lot has to do with intention. Is the intention to cause deliberate harm, or selfish gain? or both?

Plus good actions won't always have good intentions. You could donate a large sum to charity (which is generally considered a good act in itself), but only with the intention of appearing good towards others, this would be a selfish act, despite having done something helpful.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Bad, or Evil, is subjectively what goes against your wishes and objectively what goes against society's wishes.

Society's wishes change over time, so it's one of the few things where objectivity isn't constant, as it's down to multiple subjectivities.

Equally for Good.

 

[Merkavar]

i think for an action to be bad its disadvantages to society need to outweigh its benefits.

so shooting someone is generally bad but if it benefits society it isnt bad. like shooting a murder or terrorist. the beneift of saving future victims outweighs the negative of killing the person.

if you get what i mean

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

Well, to kick off, that depends firstly on whether or not you believe morals actually exist. Lets assume that they do for now. If they do, it also needs to be taken into account that morals are wholly subjective. No matter how many people you think you share your set of morals with, there will always be someone who holds a different set of morals that don't agree with yours. Even in this case, 'bad' is difficult to define, as if it is based on your set of morals, then it may appear to be a 'good' thing from someone else's perspective.

Something that's 'bad', or 'evil', is something that opposes your morals. The definition has to be stretched a little when it comes to encompassing all of society, but most people agree with the morals and law laid out by the authority, otherwise they wouldn't be that particular set.

I would argue that there is no real objectivity to what 'bad' or 'evil' is, because in the end, it comes down to what you believe personally. Yes, there may be an 'evil' defined by a large number of people (society) that may appear to be an objective definition, but you have to capability to agree or disagree with that.

 

[Realitycrash]

Something is "bad" as opposed to "good". "Good" and "bad" depends on what perspective, situation, morals, etc you have. It's extremely situational, and unless you want Platonic absolutism, where every concept has a perfect "idea" behind it, this thread won't get you anywhere.

 

[Griffolion]

Nothing is good and nothing is bad until it's been processed by our own moral codes and ascribed the label of 'good' or 'bad'. Do I think such things are necessary? Yeah it helps having your own versions of where you stand with things, if not we'd just all be robots.