No, evil is wanting to hurt other people as a goal in itself. That doesn’t really exist much in reality.
In reality, most people who do things that hurt other people are doing it to help themselves, or to help their family, or to help their community, or to help their company or to help their country. They aren’t deliberately hurting other people for the joy of seeing that pain. Instead they ignore what happens to the wider group while focusing on the narrower group they care about.
For example, I would consider the executives at tobacco companies to be evil. Their product hurts lots of people. But, they’re not people who sit in an office decorated with skulls, cackling to themselves about how many people have died from smoking. Instead they’ve managed to convince themselves that they’re doing things that are beneficial to shareholders, and that help tobacco farmers, and so on.
Even your tobacco executives don’t want to hurt people as a goal in itself. They just want to make money, and are willing to hurt others for their own benefit.
No, evil is wanting to hurt other people as a goal in itself. That doesn’t really exist much in reality.
In reality, most people who do things that hurt other people are doing it to help themselves, or to help their family, or to help their community, or to help their company or to help their country. They aren’t deliberately hurting other people for the joy of seeing that pain. Instead they ignore what happens to the wider group while focusing on the narrower group they care about.
For example, I would consider the executives at tobacco companies to be evil. Their product hurts lots of people. But, they’re not people who sit in an office decorated with skulls, cackling to themselves about how many people have died from smoking. Instead they’ve managed to convince themselves that they’re doing things that are beneficial to shareholders, and that help tobacco farmers, and so on.
Then you are excusing everybody who is evil.
Even your tobacco executives don’t want to hurt people as a goal in itself. They just want to make money, and are willing to hurt others for their own benefit.