Do you believe that it is impossible to overcome evil with evil? Can you "fight fire with fire" in a moral sense?
by 
ninja man
ANSWERS: 5
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yes, it is impossible to overcome evil with evil.
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It is contingent upon one's definition of evil... We obviously had some success with the outcome of WWII. The "evil" Hitler was put down and Europe is now peaceful and prosperous. Japan was defeated and is now our friend and ally. However, "evil" methods (such as the atom bomb) were utilized to achieve this.
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No, I don't believe so. subtleslegehammer used the example of using the "evil" of atom bombs to subdue "evil" Japan, but I don't think the analogy is quite correct. If this had worked, then evil would have been stopped. Instead, we still have the threat of nuclear war, and now it is in the hands of new "evil" nations such as Iran and North Korea. If you think you can use evil to defeat evil, you simply replace it with another evil.
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First, we have to define what it is to "overcome" something. After all, a lesser evil can easily be replaced by a greater, more powerful evil, and in that sense, has not the greater evil overcome the lesser evil?
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Theoretically, excessive chaos can lead to total annihilation resulting in there being absolutely nothing left ... a large number of evil beings could chaotically battle amongst themselves until they wipe themselves out ... even a sole survivor that commits suicide just to evilly spite life ... but in most practical applications, there may be much evil destroyed by other evil, but there always is some evil that survives ... ... as long as you are using evil to fight evil, you may be overcoming the evil you are fighting ... so in that sense, it is possible ... but as long as you still have the greater evil you used to overcome the lesser evil, then not ALL evil has been overcome ... so in that sense, it is not possible.
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