By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:42:52 +0000

Your citation of Nietzsche’s distinction is puzzling. Nietzsche’s distinction is a stipulative one (rather than being lexical or etymological). For Nietzsche ‘bad’ is the master morality term for a negative morality and and ‘evil’ is the slave morality term for a negative morality. Nietzsche argued for a “transvaluation of values” by which I take him to be saying something like “my (master-will based) values are better than your (supposedly transcendent slave) values” Nietzsche does not approve of the term ‘evil’ so its ironic that you would use Nietzsche’s moral system to decipher Google’s actions as bad but not evil. Google’s leaders probably qualify as the kind supermen Nietzsche admired, in which case he believes its ok for them to create their own values, and hence their own definitions of evil.

Comments on: “Don’t be bad.” vs. “Don’t be evil.”

By: Martin