No consequences in life...would you be evil?

In the world of violent video games when you kill someone there is a negative reaction. You might even be killed for it, but in the end the deed is undone or your forgiven. Let's say life worked like that. You shoot someone, you see the outcome(like them crying or screaming, etc). Moments later all is forgiven. So if you do harm to your best friend, they will continue to be your best friend. While were at it, you can not die, so there is no after life.

If life worked like this, how evil do you think you would be? Or would you just be kind all the time even though you know you can take advantage of people and get away with it?

I 'd like to think that I wouldn't but I don't have the self control to not go do whatever I want.

Society wouldn't exist if people weren't doing good stuff to each other.

I would be in a pretty bad position if society didn't exist around me.

If everyone had no consequences, life wouldn't be worth living. You just have to look at what happens with looting during riots to see that.

If only I had no consequences, I'd probably stop going to half my classes, and start learning a lot more on my own. I wouldn't let other people get in my way with my goals, but I'd try not to hurt people (emotionally, economically, etc.). I guess from some standpoints I'd be evil, but from my own eyes I'd just be having fun.

Originally Posted by Double A

Society wouldn't exist if people weren't doing good stuff to each other.

In the OP's scenario, you are the only one to not have consequences.

My behavior wouldn't really be that different except for maybe the occasional outburst that I would normally try to suppress.

I would probably continue living the way I do now. I don't like doing 'bad' things, not out of a sense of fearing consequences but because I honestly don't enjoy being cruel or hurting people at all. In a world where I'm this immortal being who has no reason to fear consequences... I don't think I could see myself changing. TBH it's a hard concept to grasp, but thinking it over, such things just wouldn't be done.

If this happened, I would kill myself

if there were no negative consequences to my actions, would they even be evil at all?

there are already no consequences for being evil. If you are evil you don't care if you shoot and kill people. Trust me, I shot and killed both of my grandparents.

Well, I wouldn't lose my conscience so I doubt I'd be evil.

I'd experiment.

Originally Posted by Lysis

if there were no negative consequences to my actions, would they even be evil at all?

Yes. They would be considered by decent people.

Good and bad people would still exist.

What counts as consequences?

Originally Posted by <|:D

Yes. They would be considered by decent people.

Good and bad people would still exist.

I judge actions by their consequences. Good actions have good consequences, bad actions have bad consequences.

I think this is a pretty catch-all lack of consequence. From the view of utilitarianism, what makes a particular act "bad" is that it ultimately has an unfavorable outcome. The world that you suggest is that regardless of what you do, an unfavorable outcome lasts for only a little bit, then is entirely erased. From a solely utilitarian point of view, it insinuates that no action is bad, because they ultimately have no bad consequences.

I think this has a lot of problems in terms of morality because it cheapens actions themselves. I do not do ill not because I fear divine punishment or legal retaliation (they are concerns, yes, but hardly the real reason why I "do good"), but simply because any "bad" that I do ultimately results in no actual bad outcomes. For example, I do not wish to lie to my friends because it would hurt their feelings, and I'm invested in their emotional well-being. However, if my lying would not harm their emotional well-being, then technically it would not be a "bad" action. ^_^;

No consequences in life? Pain and suffering are negative consequences, so yeah I would probably do some "evil" things. Without pain and suffering, how can there be "evil"?

If this were true, than many great homocides throughout history would be prevented by killing or imprisoning the person at the root of the incident. It would be easier to administer justice, if somebody actually got away with doing a crime. But I would hate such a life, because there would be no feeling of a place in the world, if I could just die over and over.

I've always wanted to murder

The mental consequences would exist no matter what. Humans are evolved to have a sense of empathy, so unless every human being was seriously psychotic then we would still want to make eachother happy, not to cause suffering.

If we lost all ability to perceive what constitutes the well being of another person, then sure, I guess I might go kill some dudes.