One thing I found difficult in Part II was understanding why we even need “Law” in the first place. Why not just aim for the Good, if that’s the obvious goal?
I think the reason is that we cannot grasp the Good directly, so we need law to guide us. Until, like we discussed before, the law stops serving the Good and starts serving itself.
I’ve been reading about The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist (I haven’t read the book), and one of the main ideas seems to be the two ways the brain—divided into left and right hemispheres—sees the world. Basically (and please forgive me if I’m mangling this), the right side sees a diffuse “whole picture”, while the left has laser-like focus on one thing at a time.
[Or, as McGilchrist says in a Jordan Peterson interview, in many animals the right side is looking for predators while the left one is looking for prey].
One example (not sure if it’s from the book) is how we can be in a room full of people talking, and we’re completely unable to follow each conversation, but somehow we can hear our name get mentioned. This is the "right brain", perceiving nothing and everything at the same time.
So there’s an analogy here between Law and Good. Law gives us guidance: for example, “if someone commits adultery, stone them to death,” or “you cannot eat meat, shellfish,” etc. It’s simple, easy to understand, clear-cut—a job for the "left brain". But the Good transcends this: “he who hath no sin, cast the first stone,” “the Sabbath was made for man.” And this is not a binary “break the law” moment either—it transcends the mere yes/no. “I do not condemn you; go and sin no more.”
Another example—one I’ll mention just because of sheer coincidence*—comes from a TV show I was watching after pausing to write this very post. It was about a university student who missed his midterm exam by just a few minutes, and his teacher, principal, etc., insisted on enforcing the rule to show its importance. In the end, the student humbly asks the teacher to reconsider, showing that he’s learned his lesson but now needs just one person to say “F— it.” And the teacher does, giving the student another shot. I’m not saying this is right or wrong, but in that moment, the rules would have prevented the main goal—graduating an exceptional student—for no apparent gain.
[*BTW, these kinds of "coincidences" are the right brain's domain. I started reading about The Master and His Emissary because "coincidentally" two different courses I was watching pointed me to it somehow].
One final analogy came to mind while thinking about D&D. When going into dungeons, you can carry a torch—or, in later editions, even a "bullseye lantern". Now think of a modern small lantern: it’s much better than a torch, but it only points one way, while the torch lights all around you.
But, when walking in the dark (and we are all walking in the dark—from Plato to Scripture to Maya, etc.), you need a source of light to make all your surroundings clearer—lest you be jumped by monsters or fall down a hole you didn't see because you were looking straight ahead. Still, the lantern allows you to see farther ahead, and in greater detail.
One thing that bothers me about D&D torches is that, in real life, they’d be horrible to use in dungeons. Carrying fire near your eyes ruins your vision. You’d have to hold it behind you, or maybe mount a candle over your helmet. Looking directly into the light would blind you, not to mention the smoke.
That’s why we cannot look at the Good directly.
I like this metaphor because light is a symbol for the Good—but it can also be blinding. “For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” So while Law, when twisted into Lawful Evil, can be defied by pure Good (which might resemble Chaotic Good), it can also be defied by Chaotic Evil—pure evil disguised as Chaotic Good.
I’m not sure how much of this applies in D&D, since deities like Bahamut are Lawful Good, period. I’m not sure how D&D handles the Euthyphro dilemma, or whether Bahamut could ever do evil. I think these things are more or less set in stone—although maybe there’s a module or novel somewhere about Lawful Evil cultists of a Lawful Good deity.
If there is, I’d bet the adventure would play out in a way similar to what I’ve been describing: the Good (or Chaotic Good) heroes having to break the letter of the law to uphold its spirit, while the true Chaotic Evil characters remain unseen, lingering at the edges of the zealots’ vision, because the zealots are using lanterns to search for motes in front of them and ignoring the Light above them, and the full picture all around them.