What is evil, anyway?

This topic submitted by Dave Chalker, Chris Nicholson (nicholcj@muohio.edu) at 4:47 pm on 4/14/01. Additions were last made on Friday, May 4, 2001. Section: Myers.

Introduction
The concept of evil exists in every culture. What is evil? Where does our definition of evil come from? More specifically, is morality socially constructed, or is it rooted in biological evolution? These questions have profound significance for our society. If morality and one’s definition of evil are purely cultural, then there can be no absolute morality: all moral situations would depend on their context. If, on the other hand, there is a biological basis for morality, then it would be possible to determine universal moral guidelines.
We intend to survey people as to how likely they would be to take similar actions in different circumstances. We can then analyze their responses to look for trends in human behavior. We expect to find a correlation between one's willingness to take an action in a "socially acceptable" scenario and their willingness to take the same action in an "unacceptable" scenario. If so, then this should indicate an underlying natural trend toward one set of behaviors over another.
This research will be extremely significant. What we are investigating will shed light on the ancient philosophical question of whether or not absolute morality exists. In the wake of the recent philosophy of moral relativism, fewer and fewer people believe absolute morality exists. However, if it did, it could revolutionize the way we conceive of human nature.

Connections

As mentioned earlier, much thought and research has gone into the question of evil. It is one of the oldest questions in philosophical and theological inquiry. However, we still do not have a clear grasp of the nature of evil. Most likely, our research will not change this, but hopefully we will be able to shed some light on the issue.
Many of our sources below are built on studies into the nature of evil. Numerous anthropologists, sociobiologists, and others have devoted intense research to understanding evil. We have collected works addressing the question of evil from philosophical, psychological, evolutionary, anthropological, theological, and interdisciplinary perspectives. Clearly, it is a question of some importance that no small number of people have been investigating for some time.

Materials and Methods

We plan to distribute surveys among Miami students. These surveys will then be compiled, and the results tabulated using StatView or a comparable statistical analysis program. Based on these results, we should be able to draw some conclusions about the nature of evil.
We also intend to engage the class in activities designed to represent various ethical and moral situations, in order to gain a clearer understanding of how morality functions within groups and among individuals.

Here is an example of a survey we might use (this is subject to revision):

Age: _____ Sex: M F

On a scale of one to ten, where 1 is extremely unlikely and 10 is extremely likely, rate how likely you would be to do the following:

1. How likely would you be to take money:
-that is offered to you freewill? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

-that you find on a sidewalk? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

-from someone’s home? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

-by threatening an individual? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2. How likely would you be to kill someone:
-as a soldier in combat? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

-in self-defense if there was no alternative? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

-for money? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

-for revenge? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

We hope to be able to distribute 100 surveys across campus. This should give us a large enough sample size to perform significant statistical analysis.

Timeline

This is a rough schedule of our intended progress:

Week 9: Finalize surveys, begin distribution
Week 10: Continue survey distribution, study research materials
Week 11: Finalize surveying, continue research
Week 12: Compile survey results; statistical analysis
Week 13: Compile materials for final project/presentation
Week 14: Begin work on final project
Week 15: Continue final project, wrap up loose ends
Week 16: Complete project

Sources

Here’s some of the sources we have right now. They are really neat!

Anders, Timothy. The Evolution of Evil. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Co., 1994.

Daly, Martin and Maro Wilson. "Killing the Competition: Female/Female and Male/Male Homicide," Human Nature 1:81-107, 1990.

Hurd, James P. Investigating the Biological Foundations of Human Morality. Lampeter, Wales: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1996.

Paradis, James, and George C. Williams. Evolution and Ethics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.

Rottschaefer, William A. The Biology and Psychology of Moral Agency. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Singer, Peter. Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Stent, Gunther S. Morality as a Biological Phenomenon. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1980.

Wawrytko, Sandra A. The Problem of Evil. Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 2000.

CogWeb: Cognitive Cultural Studies.

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