Howard asked:

In every evil there is something good.

Do you agree or disagree with that proverb?

Now, just as a reporter might stop you on the street and ask your opinion about something, this e-mail
is performing a similar function. And just as you are free to walk away from the reporter, you also free
to walk away from that question by hitting the Delete button.

If you're still with me, what I'm looking for are comments on that proverb -- NOT the kind that sound
as though they were ripped out of a holy book, or a philosophy textbook, or some group's operating
manual, or a family's code of values. Just plain, honest thinking. And I'm looking for true stories that
either help prove or disprove that proverb.

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Tell you what. I'll swap your proverb for these two:

Proverb 1

Every cloud has a silver lining.

Proverb 2

'Tis an ill wind that blows no-one any good.

Though you seem hostile to the idea that any progress might be made with your question through
philosophical analysis, I think you will find that my two proverbs reveal two very different meanings in
your proverb. That is one of the things that philosophy does. It clarifies questions which were
originally confused.

Proverb 1 says that what we take to be a misfortune can later reveal positive benefits for us.Proverb
2 says that events which a misfortune for somepersons, will be a cause for celebration for others.
Difficult to disagree with either claim. Unfortunately, as proverbs do, they over-simplify. Proverb 1
implies that you will alwaysfind a benefit. Proverb 2 makes a similar claim to universality, but by
means of a rhetorical device. The literal meaning is: 'No wind is soevil that there is not a single
individual who benefits from it.

Most of us can think of things that might happen to us which would have no positive benefit
whatsoever for ourselves. Similarly, there are ill winds — like a nuclear holocaust that kills all life on
the planet — which would benefit no-one. It follows that both proverbs are false. However, each
contains a sufficient portion of truth to be a useful guide to life.

Geoffrey Klempner