įurther information: Zoroastrianism and Gnosticism The modern philosophical questions regarding good and evil are subsumed into three major areas of study: metaethics concerning the nature of good and evil, normative ethics concerning how we ought to behave, and applied ethics concerning particular moral issues. However, elements that are commonly associated with evil involve unbalanced behavior involving expediency, selfishness, ignorance, or neglect. Definitions of evil vary, as does the analysis of its motives.

Evil has also been described as a supernatural force. Įvil is often used to denote profound immorality. In cultures with Buddhist spiritual influence, both good and evil are perceived as part of an antagonistic duality that itself must be overcome through achieving Śūnyatā meaning emptiness in the sense of recognition of good and evil being two opposing principles but not a reality, emptying the duality of them, and achieving a oneness. In cultures with Manichaean and Abrahamic religious influence, evil is perceived as the dualistic antagonistic opposite of good, in which good should prevail and evil should be defeated. In religion, ethics, philosophy, and psychology ' good and evil' is a very common dichotomy. , he claims that the allusive language of the Holy Bible corresponds to the language of the Sankhya School of philosophy in Indiaand Laozi in China.In Ary Scheffer's 1854 painting The Temptation of Christ, the devil (right), the personification of evil, tempts Christ (left), the personification of the character and will of God. And in a discussion of Christ the Redeemer in The golden age of classicalChinese philosophy. , an ancient Hindu text that he has justread with enthusiasm, might have inﬂuenced “Confucius und Laotse”-unlikely, since scholars now date the text to not much earlier thanthe second century, a few centuries

In a letter to a good friend he wonders whether The He mentions Chinese philosophers only twice, both times at the end of his career. The occasional comments Nietzsche makes about China suggest that he didn’t know much more about Chinese culture than one would expect from a well-educated German of his time.

Graham Parkes published some fascinating musings on this: I've always felt there is a connection between Zhuangzi and Nietzsche in the guise of Zarathustra.

Friedrich nietzsche good and evil