John Dewey's take on Good and Evil

Dear Friends

Good and evil are cultural constructs that always change over time and geography.
But Zarathushtra does not discuss good or evil in The Gathas (people who make such claims have read sloppy translations). Zoroastrianism is not about good and evil. Zoroastrianism is about mentalities. A constructive mentality that wants what is best for the world, that wants life itself, against a destructive mentality which is against life in itself, that wants to belittle the world and what we humans think, say and do.
And mentalities are forever. Zarathushtra's philosophy is therefore as relevant today as it was 3,700 years ago. We want to have and to nurture the constructive mentality, this is what it means to be a Zoroastrian. This is what our daily meditations are all about!
John Dewey is a brilliant philosopher. A Zoroastrian in disguise if ever there was one. He is also interestingly the hero of Barack Obama.

Ushta
Alexander

2009/4/3 maneck d
- Dölj citerad text -

The second para of your attached mail discusses goodness and badness.
IF Evil today was considered Good sometime ago, what changed?
Our Brains, our culture, and the considerations they go through??

Thus my query in the earlier mail, as to whose Brain would decide an Item (thoughts/words/actions) to be Good or Bad?
I hope I have made it clearer now.

Cultures and Societies have different standards, about Good and Evil. The Vegetarian Hindus termed our daily non veg animal food as totally Evil acts, while we Zs brought up in the non veg ParsiZ culture did not even give it a thought.

Dino, if I have butted in and diverted from your thoughts in your mail and what you were explaining, please disregard my earlier mail and continue with your discussions.

maneck d


----- Original Message -----
From: special_kain
To: Ushta@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, April 03, 2009 5:28 AM
Subject: [Ushta] John Dewey's Take on Good and Evil

Dear friends,

We've exhaustively discussed good and evil many, many times. But let me please introduce John Dewey's take on good and evil, which I find very interesting. Unfortunately, I don't have the original words, only a German translation of a collection of Richard Rorty's essays (who happens to be my favorite philosopher these days).

Goodness is not the total "remoteness" of badness or evil. In a way, goodness has grown out of badness - what we consider evil today used to be good some time ago (such as torturing prisoners), but doesn't serve our purpose anymore (such as discriminating against women and homosexuals in the name of God). When making choices, we don't (want to) see evil as what it is, because it still is supposed to be one of the goods that are competing with each other. Only time can teach us what's right and wrong.

Ushta,
Dino