(8) Experiments III/Puzzles II

[cramschoolgod]

[Sasaki's a little restless thanks to excessive prom talk, and not enough progress with her projects. Well, why not take a break tonight? She decides to make a little call.]

A.) [Phone, standard filter:] I'm curious-- how many of you believe in such a thing as good and evil? And specifically, a natural inclination towards it. Do you think humans

Comments

[wise_king]

Good and evil is certainly subjective but one must lean one way or the other.

[cramschoolgod]

...[Ah, right. Him.]

Really? One can't simply evaluate one's actions on a separate basis entirely?

[wise_king]

What basis would you use?

[cramschoolgod]

For example, what is the course of action most conducive to the production or discovery of knowledge?

[square_cubelaw]

What do you have there?

[Not!Dad is curious, pausing some of his own projects for the prom]

[cramschoolgod]

It's a little maze... a three-dimensional maze, with the immersion in what meant to simulate a low-gravity environment. You know how humans are often biased towards the two spatial directions they move in most frequently, and ignore the z-axis, so to speak? I wonder if other animals do as well.

[cramschoolgod]

Would you believe the prom?

Interesting, Araragi. So, how do you explain the state of the world? It often is claimed to be fairly poor. That is, filled with evils.

[cramschoolgod]

Ah, it's not particularly important, but as a result of all the discussion about it, it seemed to me that humans had a natural inclination towards stupidity, and that this could explain why the world was in a poor state whether or not one presumed humans were naturally good or evil. Also, there was some discussion of someone threatening to shoot people, I think.

That isn't a falsifiable belief. It's essentially proclaiming optimism, but without any particular reason for it, then? It isn't invalid, precisely, but it's more interesting to me to try to keep speculations based on what empirical evidence exists, without having a preset opinion.

A)

[tsurimoe]

It...depends?

[cramschoolgod]

In other words, they can be inclined towards either? Or possibly neither?

[tsurimoe]

Either, I think? It's all a big if, if you ask me.

[cramschoolgod]

Hmm. In practice, it may seem like that, but it's not a very satisfying answer if we simply say there's no way to know. We can at least try to tease apart the factors of the problem.

[cramschoolgod]

There are some people here who appear to have no compunctions about what you might call mistakes. It isn't impossible to imagine, yes? For example, one resident of this place -- the bellicose German Major -- recalled to me a certain poem by Ezra Pound. "I have no life save when the swords clash."

[cramschoolgod]

...Of course, because the terms angel and demon don't seem to have any kind of similar interpretation in any sense. One could only add the quality of being 'purely good' by a kind of circular definition-- which I suppose is part of the quality of all definitions.

Still, I suppose you would admit some interpretations as valid and others as not. What would be the criteria?