Are orcs actually evil?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

But, he comes so close to "black" that it's really undistinguishable.

Actually, having looked through Letters, it looks to me as if Morgoth was not thought by Tolkien to be completely evil.

In my story I do not deal in absolute evil. I do not think there is such a thing, since that is Zero. I do not think that at any rate any 'rational being' is wholly evil.

Letter #183

And regarding the Orcs, he says:

....the Orcs-- who are fundamentally a race of 'rational incarnate' creatures, though horribly corrupted, if no more so than many Men to be met today.

Letter #153

If the Orcs are 'rational' creatures, it follows they must be capable of free will. And if Morgoth himself was not totally evil, the Orcs as a race could not be so either.

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Even Eru cannot be said to be truly white - just look at the number of times this topic has been debated lately in various threads!

Ah, but it's Ilúvatar's world, isn't it? He made it. Good and evil are his to define.

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Actually, having looked through Letters, it looks to me as if Morgoth was not thought by Tolkien to be completely evil.

Letter #183

And regarding the Orcs, he says:

Letter #153.

From a logical point of view, he really can't be anmore than a being can be pure good. Such extremes are not merely unattainable, they are logically impossible, for the simple reason that many vices and virtues are ultimatley mutually contradictory with each other. To give an example it is impossible to be both perfectly just and perfectly merciful, in thier pure form the two become mutually contradictory. Likewise, a purely evil character would not make a compelling villian. He or she would, in fact be at best pathetic and more likey non-viable. A wholly evil being would, by defintion be incapable of doing anything that was not evil and most of theactions that keep an organism (and for the purposes of this argument characters like Melkor can be considered organism) going are morally neutral. If orcs were wholly evil, they could not eat drink or breathe, since these acts of self perservation are usually considered good (unless you want to make the argument that once you have become evil enough the moral imperatives sort of flip and suddenly keeping yourself alive becomes the evil act and destroying yourself the good one.).

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Ah, but it's Ilúvatar's world, isn't it? He made it. Good and evil are his to define.

And that's a crux point, if a being is omnipotent and a universal creator, then terms like "good" and "evil" become functionally meaningless. The ominipotent creator makes the defintions and being the omnipotent creator, he can chage those defintions at any time, even retroactively if he/she so chooses. Indeed in that circumstance "good" basically ends up being defined for the being as "whatever I do". Actually that is probably the only way a purely good or evil character could exist, if you do the creator definiton concept of "Good is defined as whatever I do, Evil is defined as whatever you do i.e, the "I can do no wrong, you can do no right" concept."