When we call someone a “generous person,” we rarely think about the literal meaning of this phrase. Understanding by this characteristic the ability to love, forgive, be generous, help others - in general, everything that is usually applied to "good" or "positive" people, altruists as opposed to egoists.
Great soul
Meanwhile, as follows from this epithet, a generous person is one who has a "great soul." Until recently, there was no way to scientifically verify this statement - after all, the soul is a spiritual object, not subject to measurement in centimeters and grams.
But the other day, curious news appeared in the media - from the United States. Scientists there tested the brain of more than two hundred participants in the experiment, boys and girls, comparing it with such psychological qualities of a person as a tendency to kindness or, conversely, anger. And they got an unexpected result - the brains of good people weighed more than their "evil" counterparts. In any case, in the central section, the most developed in humans in comparison with other living organisms and mammals in particular.
Thus, the representatives of the most rational and not prone to mysticism "caste", scientists, proved the correlation between "the greatness of the soul" and "the size of the brain." That, in general, became just a confirmation of the postulates of influential religious and philosophical-ethical systems known for thousands of years.
good and evil
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So, Zoroastrianism, which originated more than two thousand years ago in Asia, postulated the existence of two practically equivalent principles in the world - Good and Evil. Each of which had its own existential basis. Accordingly, it was necessary to fight against evil (and evil) - physically destroying them. This system is called "dualism"
In contrast to this, the ancient Greek philosophers put forward the position, which later passed into Christianity, about the existence of only one real principle, good. And evil within the framework of this system called “monism” was thought only as non-kindness, non-being, flaw, lack of good, “donut hole”. Accordingly, absolute evil, which does not have even a spark of good, being, in general seemed impossible. And the fight against evil, ideally, of course, was possible only by making up for these flaws, with the help of love, the multiplication of good.
To what extent this was achieved in practice is another question. Unfortunately, Christians often have to even kill their enemies in order to save those who are threatened by them. But even in this case, these forced steps are considered in the manner of amputation of a leg with the onset of gangrene. Which has to be cut off for the sake of saving the patient's life - but without the slightest joy, but only with regret that the part of the body that is very necessary for its owner could not be cured and saved.
The dispute between "dualists" and "monists"
Returning to the theme of "generosity", evil manifestations of human nature within the framework of "monism" are also usually characterized "by contradiction." That is - from the good manifestations of our soul, taken as a "standard". So, greed is understood as an inability to show generosity, aggression is a lack of patience, callousness is an inability to love, and so on.
But, as indicated above, until recently, the dispute between "dualists" and "monists" was more speculative and philosophical. However, the American discovery of the brain size of good and bad people provides a very powerful pros for the monistic approach to ethics.
Indeed, “evil” brains are not that they did not have a specific development of some “evil” zones responsible for the corresponding emotions and actions - but simply did not have anything tangible in this sense. That is quite consistent with the concept of evil, as the very "donut hole", non-being, the parasite of good.
But the brain of kind people had quite visible and verified by modern scientific research methods, additional volumes of substance. Which is also quite consistent with the fact that good has a real basis - on all planes of being, from the spiritual to the material.
Well, it remains only to be surprised at the intuitive wisdom of ancient thinkers, without any modern magnetic resonance imaging machines and other achievements of scientific and technological progress, which put forward quite sensible ideas explaining the deep essence of interhuman relations. And to be glad that modern science has confirmed all these postulates that call us to fight against evil not by destroying the “evil” (but in fact, “sick” with their own shortcomings) people, but by making up for other people's weaknesses with good thoughts and deeds.
Yuri Nosovsky
