14 replies to this topic

[Kon-Tiki]

What makes a person a good person, and what makes a person a bad person? Is it possible to be an overly good person or an overly bad person? How's it influence that person?

[Tulac]

What? We're doing this in school from ethics...

I myself think that being good or bad depends on the point of view, if it wouldn't there wouldn't be wars either...

[Sean]

Ned Flanders - Overly Good
Mr.Burns - Overly Bad
Homer Simpson - Just about right

[Ioncannon]

There is good in bad in all of us, it just matters which has the greater influance. Bad people would be people who want to harm and insult others, good people try to help and make the world a better place.

[Maikel]

It's all a matter of perception. You have to decide for yourself

[Kon-Tiki]

So Darth Vader would concider himself good and see Han Solo and the likes as evil? Sauron sees himself as the incarnation of pure goodness, while he sees the fellowship and those that support them as evil bastards?

[Fawfulhasfury]

I guess I clasify it as this.
Tom Henrik=good
Fawfulhasfury(me)=bad


Thats just my view of the whole thing.

[TheSmyth]

I'd have to agree with the "perception" point of view....

I.e. The USA thinks it's a force for good. But I'm damn well convinced that a few foregin countries are pretty certain satan himself runs it.

But it raises the question of anti-heroes... Take "Riddick" from Pitch-Black (and CO Riddick of course)...... Murderer, Theif, Self-Proclaimed evil bastard, but is he still a good-guy?

[Sebatianos]

The good and the bad... you forgot the ugly  

Well I guess there's no easy way to decide what's good and what's bad...
It's the motives that people had that could determine them as either good or bad. If someone is completely convinced that his actions are good - even if they turn out to be bad - what then (an vise versa)?
I'll give you an example:
A person goes out and sees two guys rough-handling a teenager. He grabs the first thing he sees and attacks those two guys and the teenager escapes. It turns out those two guys were trying to capture the teenager, because he just raped a girl. They wanted to hold him untill police arives.

1) The guy who helped the teenager did a good deed, because he tryed to help an 'innocent' (at least that's what he believed at the time) person being attacked by two guys.
2) The guy helpped the teenager escape and thus helped a criminal to make a run for it, even though he knwe the teenager was guilty.

There could probably be some more theories on why he 'assisted' the teenager to escape - but unless you can actually deterimne what was in the guy's mind at the time, you simply can't know why he did what he did - and if he did good or bad.

[NrmMyth]

Hey those f$%#&" terrorists and bullys are bad persons, on other hand you have me as good person. Really...

[Iron_Scarecrow]

Ioncannon, on May 11 2005, 03:24 AM, said:

There is good in bad in all of us, it just matters which has the greater influance. Bad people would be people who want to harm and insult others, good people try to help and make the world a better place.

By this I am completely neutral. I don't feel like helping many people and making the world a better place, but I don't like to harm or insult people.

[taikara]

I don't really believe in an ultimate good or bad when it comes to people.

I think that all people have the potential to be either good or bad, regardless of their current state.

It's the choices that people make that determines how I perceive them.

A really "bad" person can always make the choice to do something good, and likewise, a really "good" person can choose to do something bad.

So, to me, the status of good or bad doesn't really matter. It's where the people choose to go from where they currently are that matters most in my mind.

[Handless]

It is not important if you are bad or good, it is only important if you do the right things for yourself. to become a god it ísn´t  important to be good or bad or something between.

[LordHart]

Kon-Tiki, on May 10 2005, 03:56 PM, said:

What makes a person a good person, and what makes a person a bad person? Is it possible to be an overly good person or an overly bad person? How's it influence that person?

Well, i'm an evil person. But i'm mostly evil to those that just piss me off.

[Aureliano]

Good and bad are layers that we apply on reality to make it more easy to interprete and more comfortable. There is not a set definition of good and evil in nature - there is only one if you believe in a set of concrete ideals.

The philosophy teacher I had in school once said that no one would knowingly make an action they concieve as inherently bad. In fact, what I could see about men is that no one would make an action they concieve as inherently wrong. They could agree that they could be wrong in some respect, but not totally. In fact, good and bad are not so much moral values as they are concepts of the things that are "right" and "wrong" : if your main priority is the well-being of all persons on earth, the "right" thing to do to achieve that goal is very different than if your priority is the strengh of your country, or your personnal interest.

This lead me to conclude that "bad" people are people that shares different priorities than yours.