On evil

My daughter asked me the other day whether the company I work for is evil. I thought about it for a moment and had to explain what the term evil actually means. That means I had to come up with an on-the-spot definition. I do not believe in Evil with a capital E, meaning that a thing or person's whole being is devoted to the destruction of human life in the full knowledge that such destruction is wrong. I believe that, except in some cases of mental illness, even the most horrific of acts are perpetrated not out of malice or a desire to do something wrong, but rather because, misguided or not, the perpetrator is pursuing some aim that will benefit them or an organization to which they belong (same thing).

Now, to the extent that someone pursues their interests, disregarding the cost to other human beings in terms of pain and suffering, or even loss of life, that entity can properly, by my definition, be said to be evil. Not Evil, mind you, just evil. So for a corporation to be evil, it would have to pursue some goal (let's assume financial) that would result in the suffering or death of human individuals, and it would continue pursuing that goal despite knowing of the harm it was causing.

I answered the question, having reflected in this manner, by saying no, the company I work for isn't evil, because part of its stated purpose directly addresses the human element of the business it conducts, but I pointed out that almost all corporations have immense potential for committing evil acts, even if their official stance is that they will not. I explained that it is in the nature of a profit-seeking entity to disregard or even pursue human suffering if it serves the entity's goal of increasing profit, and that, unless such pursuit is specifically reined in by governance, either internal or regulatory, the corporation will necessarily be evil.

At this point, the conversation had grown a bit too esoteric to hold her interest, but of course it had merely piqued mine, so I wrote it up here. I am curious to hear the opinions of others, if you're out there and interested in commenting.