The philosophy in the verse is very black and white. At least SOME characters’ philosophy(let’s not forget that some characters are very open minded and non judging). The average human life is worth a lot more than any demon, vampire or not, to many people.
: You're about as low as it gets, Knox, but you're a part of humanity. That isn't always pretty, but it's a hell of a lot better than what came before. And if it comes down to a choice between you and him, then yes, I would fight for his life, just like any other human's. Because that's what people do. That's what makes us—
/Shells
Angel didn’t want to kill Knox because he’s human, but he has killed lots of demons who did less evil things than destroying a soul, which Knox did. A lot of demons on the show were just hungry and needed to feed on humans, but they were killed without a second thought by our heroes, while humans who act more like monsters get to live.
Very few of the shows “heroes” would value a demon life as high or higher than a human life, even if the demon isn’t proven to be “evil”( evil as in eating and/or hurting humans).
To get to the point; a soul seems to give the possibility of a conscience, in a way that some demon spirits don’t (some species seems to be generally evil, like vampires), but it’s not a warranty. Maybe some souls work differently, there’s different degrees of soul, some are stronger, some are “clouded” or lay dormant because people learn to think more selfishly(sometimes people have to be victims to feel for other victims, and they get “access” to their conscience, or grows one, whatever).
But maybe Warren’s special brand of evil has nothing to do with his soul, or how strong it is. Maybe it’s a chemical “desease” in his brain, making him that way(assuming that nature didn’t intend for us to be sadistic selfish a-holes of course) and his soul is just a s pure as anyone elses.
So yes, it’s very black and white in the verse. Humans “soulowners” vs non human soulowners. Which sucks, because I bet Warren is more evil than a lot of vamps, and lots of demon kinds are kinder than humans.
I suppose souled means there is potential for good, but no soul means definatly evil, thats minus Spike of course, he had a chip. So unsouled demons need a good being killed.
The chip had nothing to do with Spike evilness. It took away his ability to hurt, but not his need/want to hurt.
