GOODNESS

Philosophy

Goodness • Good had many definitions throughout

history.

• It was what felt good, it was what our

elders told us, it was what our leaders

demanded, it was divinely revealed to

kings, it was what a God told a priest, it

was what philosophers argued, it was

whatever your society voted for, and it

went back to what feels good. It's no

wonder that relativists threw up their

hands and said there is no definition of

good so figure it out for yourselves.

Overview • Goodness is the quality of doing good

and not evil; it is the act of doing what is

desirable and not unpleasant. God is the

highest image of goodness.

• Moreover, how do people react to

goodness today? And what is the moral

judgment of goodness to be act in this

world? Violence of today is way too far

from our moral judgment of what is

good. For it is true that lawful things

does not mean morally good, and at the

present time we follow the rules to be

good. This is confusing to know what act

is good or evil.

Goodness in the

Republic of Plato

(Form of the Good)

• Plato describes "The Form of the Good",

or more literally "the idea of the good"

in his dialogue the Republic (508e2–3),

speaking through the character

of Socrates.

• Plato introduces several forms in his

works, but identifies the Form of the

Good as the superlative. This form is

the one that allows a philosopher-in-

training to advance to a philosopher-

king. It can not be clearly seen or

explained, but once it is recognized, it is

the form that allows one to realize all

the other forms.

Goodness- It is “what

gives truth to the things

known and the power to know to the

knower”.

• Plato identifies that we should not “introduce every form of difference and sameness in nature” instead we must focus “on the one form of sameness and difference that was relevant to the particular ways of life themselves” which is the Form of the Good.

• Plato analogizes the Form of the Good with the sun as it is what allows us to see things. Here, Plato describes how the sun allows for sight. But he makes a very important distinction, “sun is not sight” but it is “the cause of sight itself.” As the sun is in the visible realm, the Form of Good is in the intelligible realm. It is “what gives truth to the things known and the power to know to the knower”. It is not only the “cause of knowledge and truth, it is also an object of knowledge”.

What do we get

from Goodness

?

• Plato identifies how the Form of the Good allows for the cognizance to understand such difficult concepts as justice.

• He identifies knowledge and truth as important, but through Socrates (508d–e) says, “good is yet more prized”. He then proceeds to explain “although the good is not being” it is “superior to it in rank and power”, it is what “provides for knowledge and truth” (508e).

• Plato writes that the Form (or Idea) of the Good is the ultimate object of knowledge, although it is not knowledge itself, and from the Good, things that are just, gain their usefulness and value. Humans are compelled to pursue the good, but no one can hope to do this successfully without philosophical reasoning.

The Aristotle Highest

Good

• Every activity has a final cause, the good at which it aims, there must be a highest good at which all human activity ultimately aims. This end of human life could be called happiness (or living well), but what is it really?

• Aristotle's assumes that the highest good, whatever it turns out to be, has three characteristics: it is desirable for itself, it is not desirable for the sake of some other good, and all other goods are desirable for its sake. The good of a human being must have something to do with being human; and what sets humanity off from other species, giving us the potential to live a better life, is our capacity to guide ourselves by using reason.

The opposite

of Goodness

• Differing views also exist as to why evil might arise. Many religious and philosophical traditions claim that evil behavior is an aberration that results from the imperfect human condition. Some argue that evil itself is ultimately based in an ignorance of truth . A variety of Enlightenment thinkers have alleged the opposite, by suggesting that evil is learned as a consequence of tyrannical social structures.

• Goodness and evil, or simply good and evil, is the concept of all human desires and behaviors as conforming to a dualistic spectrum wherein in one direction are aspects that are wisely reverent of life and continuity ("good"), and in the other are aspects that are vainly reverent of death and destruction ("evil").

Purpose of

goodness

• It results to personal growth which

includes gaining knowledge.

• Ignorance is the highest form of

stupidity because you cannot teach the

ignorance. With that by being good you

will know what should be the right

judgment.

• It results to highest form happiness.

• If you act good you feel good.

• It results to changes in the world.

• If we all act good in the same time, is

there person who isn't happy?

Our Under-

standing of

Goodness

• It is true that it is ambiguous because we have different understanding to what is good but if we just simplify it, it deals with an association with life, charity, continuity, happiness, love and justice. In short goodness is in every virtue, and all this virtues are act of good. It is a give and take relationship of virtues, a cycle of good that what breaks this is evil or the vice. The nature of being good has been given many treatments; one is that the good is based on the natural love, bonding, and affection that begins at the earliest stages of personal development; another is that goodness is a product of knowing truth.

FIN.

Presented : March 16,2015