On a cosmic level, perhaps good and evil can be understood as functions of change in the universe. While they can be used as descriptive of beings, they would not exist apart from the actions of said beings. In such a framework, good and evil on their own would be independent forces that emanate from the motion and change in beings, yet they would remain distinct from the essence of the beings which they emanate from.
From our common and intrinsic human intuition, changes which lead to existence are “good” in our eyes, while changes that we perceive as bad or “evil” are changes that lead to nonexistence. I believe in this regard our understanding is indeed intrinsic, however, I also affirm that there is an objective qualification of good and evil, one which aligns with our intersubjective notions regarding the barebones of good and evil, as forces that lead to existence and nonexistence, respectively, which come about from our shared intuition, and thus become intersubjective. However, my purpose is not to defend objective truth and its subsequent connections with intersubjectivity. That is a topic for another time. Regardless, we can continue saddled on the back of mere intersubjectivity.
All of what I have been saying is only in reference to good and evil on a cosmic level. Obviously in our personal lives, good and evil take on a different connotation and existence than good and evil do on a cosmic level. Furthermore, it could also be said that good and evil can also exist on a spiritual level, but this would also be distinct from the cosmic framework of good and evil that I am laying the framework of.
Despite my claim that good and evil would only be forces of change, I believe that in this framework, good would still be descriptive of existence as a whole, in that existence maintains existence through change by means of counteraction in the persistence of existence, which rejects nonbeing, merely by existing.
Given that evil and good are opposites in this framework, they can also be said to exist as absences of each other in this framework. This leads to the question of whether or not the material universe is good or evil. Evil is inherently an opposing force of good, as a mechanism of change, leaving good to be the inherent state of the universe, unchanged yet changing in response to evil, which exists in response to good.
I would posit that there is a necessity that either of the two would have to serve as an initial force, with the following force being an absence of the initial force. It would be seemingly illogical to suppose an infinite parallel existence of good and evil as opposites of each other without one being begotten from the other. Given that creation, which can be designated as good, precedes destruction, which can be designated as evil, we can identify good as being what precedes evil, and evil as what exists chiefly as an absence of good.
Essentially, that which is, can be attributed as being good, given that good is an absence of evil, which counteracts that which is good, and what is good is what is, as what is evil takes away, thus ordaining the present state as being good, although not necessarily in terms of substantiality, but rather in the natural motion of existence, which is movement in and of itself; it is sustenance - a change which does not bring about change. Destruction cannot arise if not preceded by creation. Yet this is not to say that good can not then be identified as an absence of evil, as this remains the case, but only becomes true once evil is begotten, but good will always be the starting point.
Since the material universe does not change in being, as the amount of mass in the universe is always constant, it cannot be descriptive of good and evil as change, but as being, can be identified as inherently good, and consistently so. Thus, on a cosmic scale, we must look to immaterial things which change in being. We can identify consciousness as being subject to ontological change, for consciousnesses come into existence, and exit existence. However, if there is truth to the postulation of the continual existence of consciousness before life and after death, then perhaps this is not the case. So then, if good and evil is tied to conciousness, and not matter in the universe, then perhaps this framework isn't neccesarily cosmic in scope.
Thank you for reading.
- Eli Gardenswartz
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