Yin and yang

the natural dimension of evil

Livia Kohn

pp. 91-105

in: Robert S. Cohen, Alfred Tauber (eds), Philosophies of nature: the human dimension, Berlin, Springer, 1998

Abstract

Evil comes into the world after the creation of human beings, who are, in most mythologies, at first pure and form an integral part of the primordial unity of natural life. Then, however, something happens, and human beings set themselves apart, rupture the cosmic and communal coherence, by developing conscious knowledge and acting no longer with but vis-à-vis the universe. At this time good and evil first appear, in the human mind and thus in the world.