"AN EYE FOR AN EYE MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD BLIND" Can anyone please explain me this concept.

Question

please provide some good points. it's a debate ..so i would like to have both positive points and negative points... i thing the meaning is: for example - if someone bets you, you immediately give him a back reply..so this will make the whole world blind and spoil it.

Answer 1

this is a call for productive solutions rather then the usual.  

Answer 2

It means that if you throw an stone at your enemy's house and the next day he'll throw something worse than stone and the following day you'll throw something and it goes on until both of your houses are destroyed.So the moral is that revenge is not the good choice..

Answer 3

i think it refers to the bible quote " an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth" which is saying if someone hurts you , you should hurt them back (an argument used for the death penalty in america for ages)  but this counter argument is saying if someone takes your eye (someone hurts you) you go take their eye (hurt them back) then they will exact more revenge , and soon you will have no eyes left in the world to take. I can only give you positve points as im an atheist and disagree with the bible on ost of it's pionts ( it says you can legally sell your daughter at a market :-O)

Feel free to IM about anything about this , or any other philosophy question you have

Answer 4

an eye for an eye is totally negative approach in life it never serve the purpose.it simply satisfies your whims and fancies. better not to approach it.

Answer 5

Very true, if taken LITERALLY, but it is only literal in tribal areas where men, not laws, are the law. In nations with the "rule of law," such concepts as "reparations" are ethical. If you cause an accident because you were drunk and man looses his arm, we don't take your arm. But you will be required to make reparations, which may only be prison time, or it may be lots of community service too, or it may be paying the injured a lot of money.

An "eye for an eye" does not have to be literal to be valid.

Answer 6

This quote was by Ghandi, and it means that when someone does something bad to you and you do the same in return, it is no good for anyone. Nobody is better off. What he is saying is that when someone does something negative you should do something positive. If you study more of Ghandis work you will see that he preaches positivity and nonviolence.

Answer 7

I take it as you can't just be about retaliation.  if someone attacks you, your first response would be to attack back, but sometimes, that's not the best thing to do.  

Answer 8

It's a metaphor. The old testament says an eye for an eye. In other words, if you hurt me, then I should hurt you (payback). By doing this, soon everyone will be hurt or in the case of this example, blind.

Answer 9

this quote is probably Ghandi if im not mistaken.What it means is that if everyone got back at each other then there would be nobody left to blame and the whole world would be in a state of anger and blame.

Here is a example:

if one guy blames somebody in the world for a crime.and then that guy blamed someone else.and that guy blames another person.and then this continues like a domino effect until it reaches every person on earth.Then when it reaches every living person,and gets to the last human,who does he have to blame?

The quote was Ghandi's way of saying, lets not blame each other for the world problems,because if everyone blames each other then nobody is solving anything.

i hope that helps

Answer 10

for example,  if we all reported each other Y!A'd be a pretty empty place

Answer 11

This used to actually happen so I will explain it literally. In someone did something bad to you and you take of his eye, and he takes out your eye and for that you take out his other eye, and for that you take out his other eye. You both get blind.

If someone does something bad to you, say they bully you or .. they steal from you. Don't have revenge.

It's a quote against revenge. Plain and simple.

Answer 12

This was, I think, by Mahatma Gandhi, who basically talked about non-violence and getting what you want without fighting, rather by fighting peacefully.

If someone takes your eye, then you'll take theirs, eventually, there will be no one left with any eyes. So the whole world will be blind. Therefore the policy of t*t for tat isn't really very helpful, because in the end, no one wins.

On the other hand, if you just sit back and do nothing, it could be that you'll be left with nothing, and will suffer. The thing about Gandhi's ideology, is that it is extremely hard to follow. How many people do you know who can sit back quietly and follow 'satyagrahi', where you only use the stength of your will, and you enemy's conscience to win. But what if you opponent has no conscience? Then what?

I'm sorry, that's the best I can come up with.