Good and evil

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In philosophy, religion, and psychology, "good and evil" is a common dichotomy. In religions with Manichaean and Abrahamic influence, evil is perceived as the dualistic antagonistic opposite of good, in which good should prevail and evil should be defeated.^[1] Taoist philosophies typically perceive the world through a dualistic cosmological lens, where this dichotomy is a central concept, and often symbolized by the taijitu, commonly known as the "yin-yang".

Evil is often used to denote profound immorality.^[2] Evil has also been described as a supernatural force.^[2] Definitions of evil vary, as does the analysis of its motives.^[3] However, elements that are commonly associated with evil involve unbalanced behavior involving expediency, selfishness, ignorance, or neglect.^[4] Shakespeare once famously wrote the phrase, "There is nothing that is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."^[5]

The principal study of good and evil (or morality) is ethics, of which there are three major branches: normative ethics concerning how we ought to behave, applied ethics concerning particular moral issues, and metaethics concerning the nature of morality itself.^[6]