EVIL

I assume that everyone reading this blog post knows about the January 5, 2023 brutal beating and subsequent death of  19-year-old Tyre Nichols by six members of the Memphis Tennessee police department.[1] 

In a recent television interview[2], Congressman Jim Jordan called the police beating of Tyre Nichols “an act of  evil.” This remark spread widely and approvingly on social media, although Jordan also said in the same interview that he doubted that anything can be done to prevent evil acts in the future.

 ‘Evil’ is an ambiguous term that is used in a variety of contexts.  Perhaps Jordan was saying that the police beating was so wrong or bad that only the word ‘evil’ could “capture the moral significance of these actions.” [3]  This is usually the case when ‘evil’ is used in contemporary moral, political and legal contexts.

But what is “moral significance”?  It has been argued by some philosophers that evil acts are not merely wrongful actions.  An evil act is an act that gives the perpetrator pleasure. A person who shoplifts a diamond ring and later feels guilty has done wrong but her act is not evil.  Her feeling of guilt is emotionally painful, not pleasurable.   

And yet, even if the shoplifter gets pleasure from her successful theft, we would still hesitate to call her act evil because she has not intentionally or recklessly caused significant harm or death.   Intentionally or recklessly killing someone (for example, the shop owner) is a more significant wrong than stealing a diamond ring.

An evil act has four components. The act is morally wrong, it gives the wrongdoer pleasure, it is an act that causes significant harm or death, and the act is intentional or reckless.

An evil person is someone who engages in or is disposed to engage in evil acts.

Applying the preceding criteria to the known behavior of the six policeman who killed Tyre Nichols appears to qualify it as an act of evil, and the policemen who participated in the beating of this young man are evil people, at least at the time of the beating. 

These men will soon be going to trial on the charge of murder in the second degree.  All of them have pleaded ‘not guilty.’  There are no charges of ‘evil’ in the law.  But a conviction on the charge of murder will certainly give more support to Jordan’s claim that what these six men did to Tyre Nichols on that tragic night was evil.