Definition: The definition that my group had come up with in lecture 1 was that evil is an intentional act that crosses social boundaries and morals that inflicts harm which results in no remorse.
This definition was then expanded on by talking about the characteristics of the individual as well as the social context. This demonstrated that there are more than one dimension of evil that needs to be taken into account for a definition. Some individual characteristics that need to be examined are a lack of remorse/empathy, sadism and severity of harm. Some social contexts are in the workplace, cults/religion and systemic discrimination. These examples show how evil is not simply one dimensional but is situated within different individual and social ideals.
Throughout the readings, it was also demonstrated that evil is not simply an act without any remorse or thought behind it. For example, the Stanford Prison experiment showed that individuals may commit evil acts based on group mentality and felt remorse after the experiment had ended. The definition as a whole has changed over the entirety of the course, and further discusses other facets of evil, such as the magnitude gap between perpetrator and victim that needs to be examined.
That being said, the definition I will now propose: evil is an act that causes harm to another individual (either physically or mentally) which can be determined by the context of a society.
Overall, I have learned that evil needs to be considered in the context of the society in which the act takes place, and further that there is no clear cut definition. Evil is such a difficult concept to define and will continue to be, no matter how hard individuals try. Lastly, it is important to realize that not all evil is propagated through intention but can be done accidentally and with remorse.
Thank you for a great course! Wishing you all the best of luck in the future. Stay safe!
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