Making Sense of Evil (VT Massacre)

During the last few days of coverage about the massacre there have been two viewpoints about how to make sense of what happened that I believe are tacitly in conflict.On the one side their have been a plethora of psychologists saying how Cho was an acute state of mental illness involving depression, paranoia, and deep psychosis. On the other side, Cho has been called names such as monster, evil, idiot, and things to that effect. The former opinion stressing deterministic causes, or causes beyond Cho's control, and the latter stressing personal responsibility for the action.I believe there is an intrinsic conflict between these two conceptions and one of the crux's of the issue is free will, i.e, is the will free? Who is responsible for the deranged psyche of Cho? Can anyone really be blamed for this senseless act? What does it mean to say Cho was evil? Was there some "other" normal Cho inside this deranged psyche who was a sufferer of mental illness, or is the mental illness simply who Cho was?

Dude was obviously psychotic. Out of his mind. Not living in reality.Crazy people aren't evil, though they may do terrible things.True evil has to be lucidly chosen.

I agree completely. But I have heard the alternative opinions by some conservative and religious fanatics.From http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/1819833/posts Basically, what does it mean to be evil or too "lucidly choose." Are people evil or are their actions evil?Wouldn't you say that all the most deranged serial killers that have lived were severely psychotic or severely mentally ill in some other respect, and if so, are they evil?Edited by JustinC, : added [or severely mentally ill in some other respect]

Well, if you describe them as "deranged", then by definition the serial killers were not choosing their actions lucidly.Timothy McVeigh, on the other hand, wasn't deranged. He wasn't mentally ill. He chose his evil lucidly.People who join the KKK and who participate in lynchings aren't psychotic, either.The vast majority of people who helped exterminate the Jews in Nazi Germany were quite sane.Thousands of rapists move through the world as otherwise normal workers, friends, partners, husbands, sons, and fathers.All of them choose evil lucidly.Edited by nator, : No reason given.

Uh, ASchraf, instead of discussing the topic here why don't you decide if it should be promoted?

Whoops, thought I had. Wierd.

Thread copied to the Making Sense of Evil (VT Massacre) thread in the Coffee House forum, this copy of the thread has been closed.