Is there such a thing as a necessary evil, fellow /his/torians? Honest answers please, I'm genuinely curious as to your opinions.
>>494795
>evil
Spooky
>>494807
Cruelty then? I don't wanna spoop you away.
>>494817
Cruelty yes. Machiavellianism is a very effective way of achieving your goals
>>494853
>Cruelty yes. Machiavellianism is a very effective way of achieving your goals
Explain plz
>>494795
Yes, like genociding a certain group of people whose aim is to economically enslave all of mankind that aren't like them.
Metaphorically speaking.
>>494881
Go on...
>>494966
We should have killed all the Jews when we had the chance.
>>494853
>Machiavellianism
>Not Satire
Pick one dumbass
>>494795
Of course. If a child is running towards you, your family, and members of your community strapped with explosives set to go off, then it is a necessary evil to cull the child.
It is also a necessary evil to push a fat person in front of a trolley in order to save the lives of 5 people that would of otherwise died.
Likewise with an innumerable never of ethical dilemmas.
>>494795
No, evil is something everyone should never have to commit, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fedora wielding edgelord autist.
>>494795
>define "evil" as that which is unethical
>define "necessary" as that which must be done to achieve the ethical outcome, no matter how much the costs (i.e. the costs are exceeded by benefits)
So your question is "can you ever do something unethical that is ethical".
If you use some shitty deont interpretation of "evil" as "something I decided you can't do, it hurts my feelings ;_;" then yes, sometimes there are necessary evils
>>495209
Using this example, culling the child is not evil because any measure of cost is exceeded by benefit of the same kind. Even the moral stress you feel as a result of pulling the trigger is exceeded by the guilt you'd feel if you didn't.
It is also not evil to pull the lever so the train hits the (fat?) person. If you're trying to make a point that being fat means you consume so much you're functionally killing multiple people, then you're dumb but that's beside the point.
>>495301
What do you think evil is
