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Sadism and evil

I think that an argument can be made for the existence of 'evil' persons, even though I would still maintain that Hitler was not one of them. An interesting case on this score would be people who are admitted to be sadists; that is people who derive pleasure from inflicting pain on others.
 
I believe the case of the sadist is interesting, because their enjoyment derives in part from an awareness that what they are doing is morally wrong. As such sadists are not people who just happen to enjoy inflicting pain, in the same way someone might enjoy say cycling, but are rather individuals who find the activity pleasurable because it involves violating moral norms. This aspect of sadism has a certain parallel with elements of sexual activity, where excitement is derived from some imagined 'immorality' or transgression being enacted. Conversely where sex enters a legitimised or accetped domain in terms of societal 'moral' norms it may be thought to lose some of its interest, which explains, to some extent, why sex after marriage for certain people becomes boring.
 
The point is that in the case of genuine sadists we have people who are doing evil for it's own sake, since their pleasure is bound up with acknowledgement of an action being prohibited or immoral. In a similar way a good person may derive pleasure from doing good but this is not the reason they do it, and that pleasure is itself tied up with an awareness of having done what is right. Consequently if sadists like this exist it may be said that we do have properly 'evil' people, people who, like the characters in De Sade novels or Satan, do evil for it's own sake.
 
David.

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