[Kaiserin]

Interesting thread... I hope nobody minds if I jump in. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
I can see two possible dimensions of orcs' inherent evil:
1- Evil in essence / being. If that is the case, then they have no choice but to do what is nasty, depraved and downright wrong because their very being is corrupted.
2 - Evil in action / intention. If it is simply by their deeds that they are considered "bad", but not necessarily their being or essence (i.e., if they are not "irredeemable"), then it must just mean they have the capacity to resist doing evil.

Earlier in this thread, somebody remarked that "good" is that which coincides with the will of Eru (I think it was Keneldil... I hope I spelled it right. I'm not so good at spelign). If that is so, a perversion of his will would be evil. A corruption of what he had originally designed would be evil - such as the "creation" of orcs. Then it would also probably mean that orcs are evil themselves because they were not part of Erus' original intention (?)
But anyway, who knows the definite, specific will of Eru, down to the nitty-gritty details?

Just a thought: If Eru intended all to be good, and a perversion of his intention is evil... then "evil" as we know it is actually just a corruption of good. Meaning that evil cannot exist apart from good because it is just "spoiled goodness"; but good CAN exist without evil, because that was the original intention.
(Whew! I don't have enough synonyms for "evil" and "good"; sorry for the redundundundundundance [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] )