Philosophy Is revenge justifiable?

I look at a lot of movies and a lot of crimes nowadays. Alot of them are done out of revenge. Can revenge ever be justified though? Can there be a good reason to get your revenge on somebody?

 

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It depends,take the movie KillBill for instance.If they kill your family you have all the right to take your revenge.If someone knows a girl that you like and purpously take her or him purpously take them its not good to take revenge but some people become obsessed and would kill that person.But revenge is never a straight line.It is like a forest and in a forest you can easily get lost.

 

one mans revenge is anothers mans justice

revenge is in the eye of the holder revenge in the eye of the aggrieved is justice

 

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True,very true.The only thing about revenge is how some people dish it out.Some people can get violent but for them it is justice.In our eyes it is madness.

 

If you look at movies.. I think I really have only seen one movie that has the meaning of True Revenge. the movie "Count of Monty Cristo"..

Now watch that movie.. or read the book.. Which ever you want. and I think it shows revenge as it should be..

 

Agreed. Revenge is a case by case basis. Remember these guys? Are we justified by enforcing vengence? Revenge for thier inhuman acts would be rather pointless seeing as they dont seem to care about themselves or the sanctity of human life.

Regardless, taking a tow cable to them, or removing thier skin with a kitchen utensil would make the rest of us feel better and help us sleep a little better knowing that we put them through something similar to the inhumane torture they put thier victims through.

Does that make it right? The answer would be different for each person you posed it to. Kill Bill and Monte Cristo are fun to watch because at the end the bad guy gets what he deserves, our sense of justice is fulfilled.

But does it make it right?

Tch, how dare you pose a question I can't answer. I'll have to sleep on this one.

~W

 

Ah revenge what a controversial topic! hmmm where to start...

And this my friend is EXACTLY how wars start. Lets look at the middle east and all their lovely wars. I saw a really interesting and disturbing islamic television cartoon a while back and it shows just how useful 'revenge' can be. Now while I wont post the link to the cartoon here because its too inappropriate and I dont wanna get in trouble, I will tell you what happens:

A young boy hides behind a truck and watches his family get murdered in cold blood by another group of people. Now this boy takes all his sadness for the loss of the only people in the world he ever loved, and turns it to hate. He VOWS to get revenge on the horrible people who did this to him. He gets together with more people who have lost their families and loved ones to these people and plot their revenge...Their brilliant plan works! They avenged their families! Yaaay all is good right? But its not....Because the people they took their revenge on had children of their own who in turn grow up to hate and take out their 'justifiable revenge' on those who killed their families. To find out how this story ends, re-read this paragraph...

Now if its something along the lines of "So and so stole my girlfriend!!" its not really that big of a deal...or is it? Whos to say that the same kind of thing wont happen as what happened to the kid in the middle eastern cartoon? Obveously its not as extreme but where does it end? Where is the line drawn? Whos to say whats fair? We're all different and have different views on what is just and fair so doesnt that make revenge kinda flawd in itself?

Im not sure if there is a type of revenge that is right or just so if someone can give me another example yay! There are times when I want to get revenge on some people SOOO bad so I can understand it...but still...Its just one of those topics that likes to sit on the fence and doesnt want to come down...We as people like the feeling of 'getting someone back' its just so natural to us.

Looking at the bigger picture of revenge, I say that no, revenge is not justifiable.

 

Sorry Wertis but it's a good question. I see what Cherrygirl is saying. It would be like an endless cycle of murder and blood and chaos. The girlfriend thing would be more like jealousy, I think.

 

I don't think revenge is right. I think people should just forgive and forget. unless of course the person does something REALLY REALLY bad. Then they'd better watch out for me.

 

revenge is an art justification has nothing to do with it....

let me elaborate because that by itself sounds bad. revenge is like getting a papercut. [wow that sounds better huh?]

all types of paper give papercuts for starters, and diffrent paper types give diffrent cuts. for example a regular sheet of paper doesn't give a real bad papercut. but if you get a paper cut from a manila folder your in a world of pain and blood [in papercut land].

we use regular paper a great deal more than manila.[this is important to my analogy of revenge : papercut eventually] so we usually get regular paper cuts more than manila ones.

everyone participates in revenge from the person whos revenge is to waste office supplies because they hate they're boss to the loner kid(s) who kills some of the people that hated them.

we the people are the types of paper. there are every day joes that give just regular papercuts and then there are the eccentric ones that can dish out those manila papercuts. but like paper there are lots of us. and we usually only remeber the manila papercuts cause they are more [how to put it] flashy??

and like paper cuts revenge sorta heals leaving a small sacb that fall off or leaving a scar to remind to *watch out it could happen again*.

i hope this made sense i might need go back and clarify.

well if that doesn't help any god is a big fan of revenge [hehe]

 

Revenge...
Odd thing to talk about in reality because it's that human reaction that everyone sees as wrong or right. Why not just natural?

Is the idea of cause and effect still in play? Recoil perhaps for the wrong doings you have been on the bad end of? Taking revenge is like taking what was done to you and helping out Karma. Karma in itself is an idea of revenge.

Revenge spawns from vengence, or being vengeful, so the person who receives this revenge obviously did something worth punishment. Even if it's small, it's just how life is. it's human, it's natural and it can be healthy at times. Even if it's effects are indirect.


-Teh lucky

 

Revenge really, doesnt make sense when you try to justify it. When you justify something, its to give punishment for something thats done wrong. But who are we to judge what is wrong in this world? Our judgements can be so full of contradictions. In my opinion, its just one of the actions that are done while in anger.

 

This is what Laws were made for.

To prevent people taking revenge.

And I'm not talking about the constitution, but I'm going 4000 years ago with the Ten Commandments. Specifically, the law was "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth". This law wasn't made to PROVIDE revenge. But to PREVENT revenge from taking unnecessary proportions.

However, a greater ideal came with Jesus: If someone slapped your right cheek, give him the other cheek. If someone forced you to carry stuff for a mile, carry it two miles. This attitude nullifies all revenge, and promotes peace. Sociologically speaking, Jesus was a genius. Way above his (and even our) times.

I think the problem isn't revenge in itself, but about dealing with injustice. It's all about the human mind and how we want to hurt people when they hurt us. We're not some kind of cavemen who grunt and growl... we're supposed to be the top of evolution, we certainly can do much better than that.

But we don't want to, and that's the real problem.

 

It also promotes being passive, being a tool, being a slave and letting people walk all over you. Jesus to the rescue, again!

 

Usually it's the powerful who say this, because they DON'T want to give the other cheek. Anyway you seem to take the passage out of context. The context was about single offences, not repetitive abusive behavior. The New Testament speaks against slavery, remember? But I don't want to go into details. Just wanted to clarify.

 

In that you are wrong as well I may self am powerful were I stand, and I do trun the other cheek. But you have to know when they have gone to fare, yes having only done one offence is not revenge, if the crime is petty. Like as in taking a Girl or boy friend from some one thats just childest. It is also human mind to get a eye for a eye, I've done this as well, and have paid in the endless sting of it.
If we are to try and stop revenge then we must stop are self from hurting that other person, but we cant for humans are flawed and that is what make us in are way. With out pain and loss with out sadness and anger we would stop being, it would get old and we'ed die from it. Im not saing its right and im not saing it wrong, im saing it depends on the person what he or she did and is doing it for. And we are not ment to be slave to no man or thing no matter race cred or coloer, ive been tring to get my stepfather to get this for a longtime but hes yet to see. Im just tring to say it all depends on who you are and what has happend to you in your life time.


always in darkness
alexzandra

 

Revenge is justified usually to the person taking revenge. But but think of a creative way to get your revenge, instead of just physically beating the crap out of them. Don't lash out blindly, and plan. Sometimes you can get revenge and even help the person your 'venging' on.
Revenges not always necassarily bad. You can still get revenge by doing other things. Like if someone killed your father. You could get revenge by changing the killer. Im thinking about kenshin for some reason?

 

Well, I wouldnt want to do that. For all you know, the killer might want to kill you too and in that situation youre just putting yourself in jeapordy. Even so, this killer you speak of probably only wanted to kill the father...after that was done...what could have been done to change him when his goal is accomplished?

 

I believe that revenge is justified. I feel that it's one can only take it to a certain extent. I'm guilty of taking actions in vengence but i've never harmed anyone physically although perhaps what i've done was worse... i made their lives much harder but i believe it was the right thing to do so i don't regret it.

 

Your thoughts are similar to Hobbes, a philosopher who lived from 1588-1679. Hobbes argued that human nature can be related to animal nature in that each of us live independently from everyone else and act in our own self-interest. Humans, are "solitary, poor, nasty, [and] brutish" (Leviathan I 13).

Rousseau, on the other hand, believed that humans are good by nature and if they become "evil" then it is due to "corruption" caused by society. It's certainly questionable whether the definitions for evil and corruption are cross-cultural.

In terms of revenge being justifiable, I suppose I follow sort of a person-in-the-environment approach. Whether it is justifiable or not depends on the society the person lives in and whether it's socially acceptable to commit revenge. Surely some cultures might believe in "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" where others feel that we must forgive any sin commited to us no matter how severe.

This isn't a debate and I'm glad that you're all being understanding of each other, we all come from different cultures and would view this differently because of that.