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Definition: Good |
GoodAdjective1. Having desirable or positive qualities especially those suitable for a thing specified; "good news from the hospital"; "a good report card"; "when she was good she was very very good"; "a good knife is one good for cutting"; "this stump will make a good picnic table"; "a good check"; "a good joke"; "a good exterior paint"; "a good secretary"; "a good dress for the office". 2. Having the normally expected amount; "gives full measure"; "gives good measure"; "a good mile from here". 3. Morally admirable. 4. Deserving of esteem and respect; "all respectable companies give guarantees"; "ruined the family's good name". 5. Promoting or enhancing well-being; "an arms limitation agreement beneficial to all countries"; "the beneficial effects of a temperate climate"; "the experience was good for her". 6. Superior to the average; "in fine spirits"; "a fine student"; "made good grades"; "morale was good"; "had good weather for the parade". 7. Agreeable or pleasing; "we all had a good time"; "good manners". 8. Of moral excellence; "a genuinely good person"; "a just cause"; "an upright and respectable man"; "the life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous"- Frederick Douglass. 9. Having or showing knowledge and skill and aptitude; "adept in handicrafts"; "an adept juggler"; "an expert job"; "a good mechanic"; "a practiced marksman"; "a proficient engineer"; "a lesser-known but no less skillful composer"; "the effect was achieved by skillful retouching". 10. : thorough; "had a good workout"; "gave the house a good cleaning". 11. : with or in a close or intimate relationship; "a good friend"; "my sisters and brothers are near and dear". 12. : having or showing or arising from a desire to promote the welfare or happiness of others; "his benevolent smile"; "a benevolent nature". 13. : financially sound; "a good investment"; "a secure investment". 14. : most suitable or right for a particular purpose; "a good time to plant tomatoes"; "the right time to act"; "the time is ripe for great sociological changes". 15. : resulting favorably; "its a good thing that I wasn't there"; "it is good that you stayed"; "it is well that no one saw you"; "all's well that ends well". 16. : exerting force or influence; "the law is effective immediately"; "a warranty good for two years"; "the law is already in effect (or in force)". 17. : used of clothing; "my good clothes"; "her Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes". 18. : feeling healthy and free of aches and pains; "I feel good". 19. : capable of pleasing; "good looks". 20. : appealing to the mind; "good music"; "a serious book". 21. : in excellent physical condition; "good teeth"; "I still have one good leg"; "a sound mind in a sound body". 22. : tending to promote physical well-being; beneficial to health; "beneficial effects of a balanced diet"; "a good night's sleep"; "the salutary influence of pure air". 23. : not forged; "a good dollar bill". 24. : not left to spoil; "the meat is still good". 25. : generally admired; "good taste". Adverb1. (often used as a combining form) in a good or proper or satisfactory manner or to a high standard; "the children behaved well"; "a task well done"; "the party went well"; "he slept well"; "a well-argued thesis"; "a well-planned party"; (`good' is a nonstandard dialectal variant for `well' as in "the baby can walk pretty good"). 2. In a complete and thorough manner; "he was soundly defeated"; (`good' is used informally for `thoroughly' as in "we beat him good"). Noun1. Benefit; "for your own good"; "what's the good of worrying?". 2. Moral excellence or admirableness: "there is much good to be found in people". 3. That which is good or valuable or useful: "weigh the good against the bad"; "among the highest goods of all are happiness and self-realization". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "good" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | GOOD, adj. Sensible, madam, to the worth of this present writer. Alive, sir, to the advantages of letting him alone. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Computing | GOOD Graph-Oriented Object Database. Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. |
Economics | Anything that anyone wants. Source: European Union. (references) |
Literature | Good The Good. Alfonso VIII. (or IX.) of Leon, "The Noble and Good." (1158-1214.) Douglas (The good Sir James), Bruce's friend, died 1330. Jean II. of France, le Bon. (1319, 1350-1364.) Jean III., Duc de Bourgogne. (1286, 1312-1341.) Jean of Brittany, "The Good and Wise." (1287, 1389-1442.) Philippe III., Duc de Bourgogne, (1396, 1419-1467.) Réné, called The Good King Réné, titular King of Naples. (1439-1452.) Richard II., Duc de Normandie (996-1026.) Richard de Beauchamp, twelfth Earl of Warwick, Regent of France. (Died 1439.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Multilingual Slang | Hungarian (Tök jó), Russian (okhuytel'no , pizdato ), Vietnamese (xi.n). (references) |
Slang | Wicked pisser. (references) |
Tips from 1870 | Usage: Good, Well. Many intelligent persons carelessly use the adjective good in the sense of the adverb well; as, "I feel good to-day." "Did you sleep good last night?" "Does this coat look good enough to wear on the street?" "I can do it as good as he can." The frequent indulgence in such errors dulls the sense of taste and weakens the power of discrimination. Source: Slips of Speech. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Note: This page combines the content of the two former articles on 'Value Theory' and 'Goodness' which had similar subject matter.A definition of goodness would be valuable because it might allow one to construct a good life or society by reliable processes of deduction, elaboration or prioritisation. One could answer the ancient question, "How then should we live?"
Philosophers over the ages have worked hard on this question, in parallel with non-philosophers work to reach an answer. It is now (perhaps more than previously) recognised that academic approaches to the question are apparently inconclusive. But people (incorrigibly, some philosophers may say) take the clear view that goodness exists, and they spend a good part of their waking life pursuing it in the form they see as correct, occasionally having their views on goodness amended under the influence of others.
Philosophical approaches are thus separate from the answers which most of us live out in the decisions we make about leading our everyday lives, and what we pursue as good:
This article is about philosophical and academic approaches to a definition of goodness. Chiefly, it considers Western philosophical approaches but other viewpoints will be mentioned where relevant. (Those with an interest in and knowledge e.g. Eastern philosophy are welcome to edit and contribute as they see fit.)
- Goodness, Miss West, what wonderful diamonds!
- Goodness had nothing to do with it, honey!
Sadly, known definitions are meaningless, circular, or long lists of cultural values.
Moral versus other goods
There's an important difference between the words "morally good" as applied to persons and actions , as when we say that Mary's a morally good person and her honesty is good, and "good" in other senses, as when we say that a banana split is good. So what is really worthwhile? What is really desirable? That is the important question which has concerned philosophers and politicians down through the centuries, and they have usually focussed on the sense of "morally good", as applied to persons and actions.
Kant: Hypothetical and Categorical Imperatives.
Kant's (1724-1804) thinking was influential in Moral Philosophy. He pursued the idea of moral value as a unique and universally identifiable property. He showed that many practical goods are good only in states-of-affairs described by a sentence containing an "if" clause. Further, the "if" clause often described the category in which the judgment was made (Art,science, etc.). Kant described these as "hypothetical goods," and tried to find a "categorical" good that would operate across all categories of judgment.
An influential result of Kant's search was the idea of a good will as being the only good in itself.
He saw a good will as acting in accordance with a moral command, the "Categorical Imperative": "Act according to those maxims that you could will to be universal law." From this, and a few other axioms, Kant developed a moral system that would apply to any "praiseworthy person." (See Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, third section, [446]-[447].)
It's clear that any general definition of goodness must define goods that are categorical in the sense that Kant intended.
Goodness as a property
One problem is that 'goodness' seems not to be definable, and therefore it is sometimes thought not to be a real property of the world.
Attempted definitions of goodness fail in known ways. Definitions generally either describe traits or properties of a real object or set of objects, or divide the concept into other, subsidiary concepts. Both approaches have failed to define goodness. Either the definition provided is circular, or we are left without any substantial or meaningful definition at all.
As a result, philosophers have tried desperate expedients to get some of the value that such a definition would provide.
Problems with definitions using traits or properties:
Most philosophers find that the traits or properties that would justify calling a thing good are different for different categories of judgment. For example, the criteria by which we judge art to be good are different from those by which we judge people to be good. A famous early discussion of this problem is by Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics (at 1096a5).
Many judgments of goodness translate to prices, but this appears to be a summary or effect of judgment, not a cause. For example, a piece of art found in an attic may be sold for the price of a meal. A collector may then recognise it as a lost work of a famous artist, and sell it for more than the price of a house. The price changed because the collector had better judgment than the owner who kept it in an attic.
If goodness were a common trait or property, we should be able to abstract it, but no one has succeeded. Thus goodness is widely believed not to be a property of any natural thing or state of affairs.
Of course, this belief is open to trivial skepticism: Perhaps philosophers just haven't stumbled across the right definition. However, after several thousand years, the prospect is bleak.
One wonders where such an immaterial trait as goodness could reside. An obvious answer is "Inside people." Some philosophers go so far as to say that if some state of affairs does not tend to arouse a desirable subjective state in self-aware beings, then it cannot be good.
Although the elusive definition of external "objective" goodness could be used to construct rational morals and legislation, a subjective definition of goodness could be useful to help one live a good life.
Shortcomings of Subjectivism
In this connection it is useful to discuss relativism, or subjectivism, about intrinsic goods. Values subjectivism states that to answer the question, "What things are intrinsically good?" we need only answer a further question, "Well, what do I, or what does my group, want not merely as a means to something else, but for itself?"
But there are clear problems with this theory. We can be wrong about what is good for us. A clear example is where people derive pleasure from imprisoning and then torturing people. Most people want to say that this practice is criminal, and that the pleasure taken torturing people is not at all valuable or good in any sense. That, in fact, the pleasure is so bad that it is a very great evil .
Intrinsic versus instrumental goodness
A fundamental distinction is between instrumental and intrinsic goodness. This was discussed by Aristotle: an intrinsically good thing, even if it doesn't help you get anything else that's good, is still worth having for itself.
First, some instrumental goods: a hammer, or a radio. So hammers and radios, are instrumentally good.
Some plausible examples of things which are often held to be intrinsically good: the pleasure we get from listening to a great piece of music, or understanding philosophy.
Take understanding: the people who like such subjects as Science and Philosophy will often swear that understanding is something that is worthwhile in itself.
But it's not always an either-or proposition. Some things are both good in themselves, and good for getting other things that are good. They are both intrinsically and instrumentally good, for example understanding.
The important question was: "What sorts of things are good, or valuable?" And now that question can be made more precise. Ultimately we want to know what things are intrinsically valuable. What things are good in themselves?
We all know very well that we have to pursue some instrumentally good things in order to get the intrinsically good things. For example, most people pursue money as merely an instrumentally good thing, so that they can afford what they call "the finer things in life," and those things, like concerts, vacations, and of course a happy family, are supposed to be good in themselves, or intrinsically good. But it's ultimately, in any case, the things we believe to be intrinsically good that we want. So up at the top of the hierarchy of goods that we aim at, there are the intrinsic goods. And the question is: What are they? Which things are intrinsically good?
Pragmatism and Intrinsic goodness
John Dewey (1859-1952) in his book Theory of Valuation saw goodness as the outcome of valuation. Valuation is a continuous balancing of ends in view, i.e. of objectives which we contingently adopt, which we then refine or reject based on their (or their precondition's) consistency with other objectives or means to objectives, held by ourselves or others.
Intrinsic goodness then would only be accepted by him as a transitory property which depends on the situational context, being mainly based on facts about things other than the thing which is judged intrinsically good.
In short his empirical approach did not accept intrinsic value as an inherent or enduring property of things. He saw it as an illusory product of our continuous valuing activity as purposive beings. In his view, all goodness is best understood as instrumental, with no contrasting intrinsic goodness.
Hedonism
Epicurus made the first known attempt to define goodness as subjective pleasure, and its opposite as pain. This is called Hedonism. (See Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius)
However, simple hedonism is rejected even by most hedonists because there seem to be pleasures that are bad (e.g. eating too much) and pains that are good (e.g. going to the dentist).
There are other problems with identifying goodness as pleasure. It's strange to say that carrying out one's duty (which is obviously good) has anything to do with pleasure. Also, the sense of achievement following completion of one's work is rarely considered pleasure, although it is clearly good to finish one's work.
Aristotle even distinguished genuine happiness from amusement, and virtuous from base pleasures. This makes some sense because useful work (like the Wikipedia) is seen as better than mere amusement (such as a chat room).
The usual fix of Hedonism is to consider consequences, as well as pleasure and pain. For example. going to a dentist has a small amount of pain now, but avoids a great deal more later. However, even consequentialism is strained when considering duty.
Happiness or pleasure can often be recognized, which solves many problems for Hedonism. But there are more problems with Hedonism. No known definitions of happiness or pleasure have met objections similar to those of a definition of goodness: The situations producing the happiness or pleasure are different in different categories of action.
Furthermore, the conditions and consequences of pleasure, or pain, can seem to be either good or bad, and thus undermine our judgement about that pleasure or pain.
Neither happiness nor pleasure has been conceptually divided (analyzed) in a way that permits deductive choices of real-world alternatives.
So consider that the only intrinsically good things in the world are good pleasures. But then aren't we giving a circular account of "good" -- if we are saying that the good things are good pleasures, then we're using the word "good" to define itself.
Alternatively, we try to find out which pleasures will result in the most other pleasures. Then we call those pleasures "intrinsically good," and only then do we say: "the only instrinsically good things in the world are good pleasures." That allows us to get around the circularity problem.
But this is flawed. Imagine a nation of sadists. The public torture of one person in such a nation may produce more pleasure than any other event, since everyone's basic (not to say base) urges would be satisfied vicariously. But of course such an action would not be good.
So pleasure seems a poor candidate as a criteria of goodness.
Non-cognitivism
Some philosophers, in the face of apparently intransigent undefinability or circularity, pursued the line that goodness was a special property which was not empirically verifiable, like 'redness' or 'circular'.
For example, G.E. Moore blamed this circularity on what he called "The Naturalistic Fallacy". He believed that people had a sort of nonphysical intuition that could sense goodness, which was then falsely projected onto things and fallaciously treated as a natural property. Few people believe in this intuitionism, but the term has stuck because goodness is so widely thought nonphysical, or no physical basis can be found for it.
Others described a theory called Emotivism, simplistically referred to as the 'Boo-Hurray' theory of morality. It was thought by emotivists that to call something wrong, or good, was either to express a feeling of disapproval or approval, or to simply state that one disapproved or approved.
Emotivism did not bear up well as an explanation of goodness. For example, people's emotions vary according to situation, person or circumstance. But goodness is usually conceived as being constant across all situations. Also torture, for example does not become good because it is approved: and public disapproval does not always mean that an action is wrong. Therefore emotions are an inconsistent and inaccurate, guide to goodness.
Circularity in the analysis of 'goodness'
The other form of definitions of goodness is to try to divide the concept of goodness into smaller, more understandable concepts.
It has been thought that if some conception of goodness were divided, or causally regressed far enough, the process would eventually come to a logical stopping place, an "ultimate good." However all known forms of such regressions appear to be either circular, or open to skepticism.
Attempts to translate, divide or causally regress the concept of goodness usually fail in a particular way. Every such attempt seems to end up with one or more subconcepts prefixed with the word "good" or related words like "pleasure," "dutiful," "praiseworthy", or "virtuous." Such definitions appear to be circular, and therefore are believed invalid.
The circularity of causal regression hits scientific definitions of goodness especially hard, because it seems to indicate that science cannot study goodness. Some philosophers have gone so far as to say that science can only study "what is", not "what should be." They claim that there is an unsurmountable gap between facts and values, the "fact -value distinction"
The clearest proponent of this viewpoint was David Hume in A Treatise Concerning Human Understanding, who famously said that there is no logical way to move from statements about facts to statements about what ought to be. It is not illogical for a person to prefer the destruction of the world rather than suffer a small injury to their finger.
The evasiveness of a definition of 'goodness'.
Many philosophers tried to end the regressions by applying an auxiliary evaluation that helps the general regression to a stopping place. This auxiliary evaluation is often open to skepticism.
For example, Aristotle considered "The supreme element of happiness" to be theoretical study, because it "ruled all others." (Nicomachean Ethics, 1177a15) In this case, supremity was the auxiliary evaluation that could be doubted.
He also supported the ancient Greek view which said that it was not happiness , which is a mental state over time, which is intrinsically good -- it is, instead, something like happiness, but eudaimonia, for which there is no word in English, except perhaps the word "flourishing" or "well-being." Eudaimonia is more than simply happiness; it is a happy life that is well -lived .
Happiness is a subjective state. Eudaimonia is an objective state; literally, it means something like "having a good spirit." Thus this line of argument ends in circularity also.
Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) appproached the problem by asserting that everything sensed was an effect, with an earlier cause. Each immediate (proximal) cause was less diluted in goodness, and therefore, the first cause would have to be perfectly good. In this case, the concept of dilution might be doubted as an inaccurate metaphor, or that the dilution necessarily scales back to perfection (maybe the first cause was very good, instead of perfect). One might also doubt that the causal regression ends: It might be circular, for instance.
Another improvement is to distinguish contributory goods. These have the same qualities as the good thing, but need some emergent property of a whole state-of-affairs in order to be good. For example salt is food, but is usually good only as part of a prepared meal. Other exampless come from music and language.
Most philosophers that think goods have to create desirable mental states also say that goods are experiences of self-aware beings. These philosophers often distinguish the experience, which thay call an intrinsic good, from the things that seem to cause the experience, which they call "inherent" goods.
Collectivism versus Individualism: Contributory Goods
We may want to go beyond eudamonia by saying that an individual person's flourishing is valuable only as a means to the flourishing of society as a whole. In other words, a single person's life is, ultimately, not important or worthwhile in itself, but is good only as a means to the success of society as a whole.
Some elements of Confucianism are an example of this, encouraging the view that people ought to conform as individuals to the demands of a peaceful and ordered society.
So the question at issue now is: Is an individual's life intrinsically good, or is it merely instrumentally good? Is an individual's life, well-lived, something that is desirable for its own sake, or is it desirable, ultimately, only as a means to having a happy society?
We can use the terms "values individualism" and "values collectivism" to mark the dispute. Here are some definitions:
Values individualism is the view that only individual lives (or their eudaimonia ) are intrinsically valuable; and so they are valuable not merely as a means to the flourishing of society.
Values collectivism is the view that individual lives (or their eudaimonia) are only instrumentally valuable, i.e., good only as a means to, or as an outcome of the flourishing of society; the flourishing of society (whatever this might be) is the only intrinsically good thing.
We are then faced with the problem of how to choose, and on what basis, between values collectivism and values individualism.
Radical values environmentalism: transcendental value
For the sake of completeness, there is a view beyond the collective/indiviualist duality, held by some environmentalists. They feel that it's not merely the flourishing of society that is the only intrinsically good thing. It's the flourishing of all sentient life . Or perhaps all life, period.
Radical values environmentalism is the view that the only intrinsically good thing is a flourishing ecosystem; individuals and societies are merely instrumentally valuable, good only as means to having a flourishing ecosystem.
This is reminiscent of the philosophy of Hegel(1770-1831). Hegel rejected individualism as expressed for example in both the American and the French revolutions. Individualism, he felt, runs directly contrary to the nature of humanity and reality, since the individual has value and reality only as a part of a greater and unified whole.
Another similar viewpoint is that of Taoism, the ancient Chinese philosophy which advocated quietism and conformity to the Way, or Tao: "The Tao is the natural order of things. It is a force that flows through every living or sentient object, as well as through the entire universe".-Wikipedia
This sort of holism seems an odd point of view: in our experience goodness, or value exists within an ecosystem, Earth. What kind of being could validly apply the word to an ecosystem as a whole? Who would have the power to assess and judge an ecosystem as good or bad? By what criteria? Perhaps this view could be grounded in a Hegelian Absolute Mind, or in the concept of God, but these concepts are not accepted as providing an elucidation of everyday examples of goodness.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that many people get support in accepting the fact that God created the world, and therefore that it has a purpose and value which lies beyond our understanding.
Utilitarianism
Jeremy Bentham's book The Principles of Morals and Legislation prioritized goods by considering pleasure, pain and consequences. This theory had a wide effect on public affairs, up to and including the present day. A similar system was later named Utilitarianism by John Mill.Utilitarianism succeeds in many cases. However Utilitarianism has some questionable implications.
For example, it considers all goods as interchangeable. If feeding a starving child would cause the child to feel sick, and not permanently improve his situation, a Utilitarian would prefer to spend the money on a car for a rich man.
Unhappily, the utilitarian argument to permit abortions is of the same form as this questionable type, though with changed quantities. To see this, substitute "unconscious fetus, destined for loveless poverty" for "starving, hopeless child" and "improved woman's income" for "rich man's watch."
To a humanist, who values human life above all else, the form of the judgment remains invalid, while a utilitarian might agree with the statement, based on the changed magnitudes of value.
In another widely questioned set of judgments, Utilitarians weigh the pleasures and pains of men and animals in the same scale. (See PETA, an animal rights organization based firmly on Utilitarian ideals.)
John Rawls' book A Theory of Justice prioritized social arrangements and goods based on their contribution to justice. Rawls defined justice as fairness, especially in distributing social goods, defined fairness in terms of procedures, and attempted to prove that just institutions and lives are good, if rational individuals' goods are considered fairly.
Rawls' crucial invention was "the original position," a procedure in which one tries to make objective moral decisions by refusing to let personal facts about oneself enter one's moral calculations.
A problem with both Kant's and Rawls' approach is that goodness appears to be both prior to and essential to fairness, and different for different beings. Procedurally fair processes of the type used by Kant and Rawls may reduce the totality of goodness, and thereby be unfair.
For example, if two people are found to own an orange, the standard fair procedure is to cut it in two, and give half to each. However, if one wants to eat it, while the other wants the rind to flavor a cake, cutting it in two is clearly less good than giving the peel to the baker, and feeding the meat to the eater.
Many people judge that if both procedures are known, using the first procedurally-fair procedure to mediate between a baker and an eater is unfair because it is not as good.
Applying procedural fairness to an entire society therefore seems certain to create recognizable inefficiencies, and therefore be unfair, and (by the equivalence of justice with fairness) unjust.
This strikes at the very foundation of Kantian ethics, because it shows that hypothetical goods can be better than categorical goods, and therefore be more desirable, and even more just.
Summary: Values pluralism and the grading of values.
Notice that there is a succession of things which can be considered as the kind of thing which is intrinsically good: from particular events of pleasure, to an individual's happiness, to an individual's eudaimonia , to the flourishing of a society, to the flourishing of an entire ecosystem. So it can be seen that there is a rather difficult problem about the scope of the theory of value. Where do you stop, in this succession of items, in your account of what is valuable for its own sake?
If you say that an individual pleasure is valuable for its own sake, then why don't you say that an individual's entire happiness is valuable for its own sake? And so forth: and on reaching the end of this sequence, we find ourselves valuing ecosystems which is itself an activity which seems metaphysical, inexplicable.
As a values pluralist, you might say: every item in this succession of items is intrinsically good. The goodness of a particular experience, of an individual's whole life, of society, and of an ecosystem, are all worth having for their own sake, and not merely as a means to something else. So as a values pluralist you would say: I don't have to decide which of these things is intrinsically good, because they are all intrinsically good.
That position does not seem to hold up to careful scrutiny. Sometimes we have a choice , for example, to sacrifice our own pleasure, or happiness, or even our own lives, for the sake of many other people. In these cases two things are weighed: your own individual happiness, and the more general happiness of a lot of other people. And if you conclude that you should sacrifice your own happiness, in one of these ways, what does that amount to?
It could say that your own life is worthwhile in and of itself, and that it is also worthwhile as a means to the happiness of others. Remember, the same thing can be both instrumentally and intrinsically good: understanding, or knowledge, is one possible example. It is clear that a human life might be another, and in that way we might want to defend values pluralism. Two different things, your life and the good of society, can both be intrinsically good, even though you might sacrifice the first for the second. There's no contradiction in saying that.
Indeed, existentialism faces this dilemma in an egregious way: since being precedes essence, then our choices are paramount in setting our values. It makes little sense to evaluate one action over another: if they are real choices then they are expressions of our being, and of our ultimate freedom. Jean Paul Sartre faced the famous difficulty of being unable to decide whether it was better to stay at home to care for his elderly mother, or to go to war in the defence of his country.
We are left with an unresolved issue: the issue of the relative importance of intrinsic values. If these things are to be ranked in order of importance, how would the ranking go? So a person could be a values pluralist and still be an individualist, or a collectivist, or a radical environmentalist. It would just have to be said that the most important thing, the most valuable thing, is my own flourishing; or, instead, the flourishing of society; or, perhaps, the flourishing of the environment.
But this leaves us back at the start of the argument: on what basis do we, should we, choose in cases of conflict? Why is one thing better than another? Why is anything good?
Conclusion
After all this, we can see why the notion or thing called 'goodness' has a claim on being the most important, yet the most puzzling area of philosophy.
So much in our day to day life involves apparent value judgements: crucial life decisions we make, the habits we develop and transmit to our children, our deepest political convictions.
Academic philosophy seems to provide no objective criteria or decision process to help us in our decision making or reflections on these matters.
Hypothetical imperatives can outweigh Categorical imperatives, as we have seen, and intrinsic goods can be outweighed by instrumental goods. For each proposed ideal candidate for being called good, we seem able to envisage a situation where that candidate is judged bad.
Further, the prospect of the quest being successful, that goodness could finally be analysed, satisfactorily defined and universally agreed is unsettling in some ways. Perhaps the definition could be used in a totalitarian way, perhaps the world would lose some of its plurality, there may be a loss of diversity in society and in ways of life. So we are left with the paradoxical situation that ultimate, incontrovertible knowledge of what is good may not itself seem good or desirable.
Perhaps the only certainty we can have from looking at the investigations of philosopers over the centuries is that:
These conclusions may in the long run be more likely to give us some practical guidance in a world of multiple choice and of bewildering pluralism.
- What is good cannot be defined in abstraction from situations and our experience of them, academic approaches have so far proved infertile.
- There seems to be no enduring thing which can be said to be absolutely good in itself.
- Perhaps an inductive, empirical based investigation of goodness as the outcome of situations of valuation activity would be a more productive approach.
See also: Meta-ethics, Descriptive ethics , Inductive reasoning
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Goodness and value theory."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need. However it is much more than just a physical object. It is the complete bundle of benefits or satisfactions that buyers perceive they will obtain if they purchase the product. It is the sum of all physical, psychological, symbolic, and service attributes.A product is similar to a good. In economics, a good is a physical object that is available in the marketplace. This differentiates it from a service which is a non-material product.
Three Aspects
There are three aspects to any product or service:
- 1 Core Benefits
- in-use benefits
- psychological benefits (eg.: self-image enhancement, hope, status, self worth)
- problem reduction benefits(eg.: safety, convience)
- 2 Tangible Product or Service
- product attributes and features
- quality
- styling
- packaging protection and label information
- brand name
- 3 Augmented Product or Service
- warranty
- installation
- delivery
- credit availability
- after-sale service and maintenance
Classifying Products
Product management involves developing strategies and tactics that will increase product demand (referred to as primary demand) over the product's life cycle.
One useful technique in understanding a product is the Aspinwall Classification System. It classifies and rates products based on five variables:
- 1) replacement rate - how frequently is the product repurchased
- 2) gross margin - how much profit is obtained from each product (average selling price less average unit cost)
- 3) buyer goal adjustment - how flexible are the buyers' purchasing habits in regards to this product
- 4) duration of product satisfaction - how long will the product produce benefits for the user
- 5) duration of buyer search search behaviour - how long will they shop for the product
Types of Products
There are several types of products:
- consumer products - used by end users
- industrial products - used in the production of other goods
- convenience goods - purchased frequently and with minimal effort
- impulse goods - purchase stimulated by immediate sensory cues
- emergency goods - goods required immediately
- shopping goods - some comparison with other goods
- specialty goods - extensive comparisons with other goods and a lengthy information search
- unsought goods - eg.: cemetery plots, insurance
- perishable goods - goods that will deteriate quickly even without use
- durable goods - goods that survive multiple use occations
- non-durable goods - goods that are used up in one use occation
- capital goods - installations, equipment, and buildings
- parts and materials - goods that go into a finished product
- supplies and services - goods that facilitate production
- commodities - undifferentiated goods (eg.: wheat, gold, sugar)
- by-products - a product that results from the manufacture of another product
See Also
- product management
- marketing
- service
- brand
- whole product
- brand management
Finding related topics
- list of marketing topics
- list of management topics
- list of economics topics
- list of finance topics
- list of human resource management topics
- list of accounting topics
- list of information technology management topics
- list of business law topics
- list of production topics
- list of business ethics, political economy, and philosophy of business topics
- list of business theorists
- list of economists
- list of corporate leaders
- list of companies
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Product (business)."
Synonyms: GoodSynonyms: adept (adj), beneficial (adj), benevolent (adj), dear (adj), dependable (adj), effective (adj), estimable (adj), expert (adj), fine (adj), full (adj), good(p) (adj), go-to-meeting(a) (adj), honorable (adj), in effect(p) (adj), in force(p) (adj), just (adj), near (adj), practiced (adj), proficient (adj), respectable (adj), right (adj), ripe (adj), safe (adj), salutary (adj), secure (adj), serious (adj), skilful (adj), skillful (adj), sound (adj), unspoiled (adj), unspoilt (adj), upright (adj), virtuous (adj), well(p) (adj), soundly (adv), thoroughly (adv), well (adv), goodness (n). (additional references) |
| Antonyms: malevolent (adj), ill (adv), bad (n), evil (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Approbation | Deserving of praise, worthy of praise;Noun: praiseworthy, commendable, of estimation; good; meritorious, estimable, creditable, plausible, unimpeachable; beyond all praise. |
Assent | Adverb: yes, yea, ay, aye, true; good; well; very well, very true; well and good; granted; even so, just so; to be sure, "thou hast said", you said it, you said a mouthful; truly, exactly, precisely, that's just it, indeed, certainly, you bet, certes, ex concesso; of course, unquestionably, assuredly, no doubt, doubtless; naturally, natch. |
Completeness | Adjective: complete, entire; whole; perfect; full, good, absolute, thorough, plenary; solid, undivided; with all its parts; all-sided. |
Good | Adjective: commendable; useful; good; beneficial. |
Imperfection | Indifferent, middling, ordinary, mediocre; average; so-so; coucicouci, milk and water; tolerable, fair, passable; pretty well, pretty good; rather good, moderately good; good; good enough, well enough, adequate; decent; not bad, not amiss; inobjectionable, unobjectionable, admissible, bearable, only better than nothing. |
Inexpedience | Best, choice, select, picked, elect, recherche, rare, priceless; unparagoned, unparalleled; (supreme); superlatively; good; bully, crackajack, giltedged; superfine, |
Pleasure | Well-being; good; snugness, comfort, ease; cushion; sans souci, mind at ease. |
Right | Adjective: right, good; just, reasonable; fit; equal, equable, equatable; evenhanded, fair. |
Savoriness | Adjective: savory, delicious, tasty, well-tasted, to one's taste, good, palatable, nice, dainty, delectable; toothful, toothsome; gustful, appetizing, lickerish, delicate, exquisite, rich, luscious, ambrosial, scrumptious, delightful. |
Virtue | Adjective: virtuous, good; innocent; meritorious, deserving, worthy, desertful, correct; dutiful, duteous; moral; right, righteous, right-minded; well-intentioned, creditable, laudable, commendable, praiseworthy; above all praise, beyond all praise; excellent, admirable; sterling, pure, noble; whole-souled. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Good Jim. Ooh, you're making me wet (American Pie 2; writing credit: Adam Herz; David H. Steinberg) Perhaps it is good to have a beautiful mind, but an even greater gift is to discover a beautiful heart (A Beautiful Mind; writing credit: Akiva Goldsman) Good for her. (American Beauty; writing credit: Alan Ball) Yeah. Well, that sounds like a pretty good deal (The Matrix; writing credit: Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski.) Lord, what I wouldn't give for a drop of good old-fashioned Creole blood (Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles; writing credit: Anne Rice) | |
Lyrics | Uh huh, it was good (Good; performing artist: Better Than Ezra) EVERYBODY IT'S A GOOD THING (That's Good; performing artist: Devo) With a good luck charm like you (Good Luck Charm; performing artist: Elvis Presley) The one good thing in my life (Good thing; performing artist: Fine Young Cannibals) I can't believe, today was a good day (It Was a Good Day; performing artist: Ice Cube) | |
Clever | Golf is a good walk spoiled. (references; author: Mark Twain) No possible rearrangement of bad eggs can ever make a good omelette. (references; author: Chinese Proverb) Good grief (references; author: unknown) Exceptionally Good Judgment: Lucky. (references; author: unknown) A closed mind is a good thing to lose. (references; author: unknown) | |
Tongue Twisters | Good blood, bad blood. (references; author: unknown) Good Goodie Twoshoes took two shoes to the Goody Showshine shoe shop. (references; author: unknown) How many cuckoos could a good cook cook if a cook could cook cuckoos. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Good Morning (2002) All Good Men (1974) Finger Lickin' Good (1974) It's Good to Be Alive (1974) The Defiance of Good (1974) | |
Song Titles | Good Vibrations (performing artist: The Beach Boys) Hey Good Lookin' (performing artist: Hank Williams Sr.) I'm Into Something Good (performing artist: Herman's Hermits) The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Instrumental) (performing artist: Hugo Montenegro) It Was A Good Day (performing artist: Ice Cube) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References |
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Books |
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Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | "Good" foods are displayed in a shopping cart. Some foods in the cart include vegetables, fruits and oyster crackers. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |  | From an overhead angle, 2 pieces of red meat are shown with a knife on a cutting board, sitting on a white tile counter. Above the image, red lettering reads: "Choose lean meats, trim extra fats, avoid adding fat in cooking". Shot on 4x5 format. This was used in the 1989 calendar "Eat for Good Health" February 1989. See artwork: PV-19. Credit: Bill Branson (photographer). |
 | Evaluation of fecal smear technique. Top - good, Middle - too thin, Bottom - too thick. Credit: CDC. |  | Radical changes in sea level following 1964 Alaska Good Friday Earthquake. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | Earthquake damage in Alaska following 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | The makings of a good "belly flop.". Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | A female diamondback terrapin, probably looking for a good place to deposit her eggs. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Boy! That milk was good. Think I'll take a nap. Note bloody umbilical cord area. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |
 | Leith - a fleet of whaling chase vessels layed up for good. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | A mountain of oysters. Where spawning conditions are good, oysters in their natural state will attach themselves, one generation atop another, until great ridges of them exist up to high tide. However, such oysters are poor quality and of little commercial value. By spreading them out and giving them room to grow, the quality can be improved. F&W A-6151. Credit: Fisheries. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Good morning" by Grant Yiu Commentary: "Sun coming up over ottawa." | "Good bye blue sky" by Filip Schneider Commentary: "Towering over my head." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption |
 | Man speaking "this is a good place to start" . |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Count Leo Tolstoy | Only those live who do good. |
Friedrich Schlegel | Good drama must be drastic. |
Gabriel Heatter | There is good news tonight. |
Gaius Petronius | One good turn deserves another. |
Giuseppe Mazzini | Good council has no price. |
Horace | Make a good use of the present. |
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe | In art the best is good enough. |
Ovid | To give requires good sense. |
Thomas Fuller | Good clothes open all doors. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Magna Carta | 1215 | An oath, moreover, has been taken, as well on our part as on the art of the barons, that all these conditions aforesaid shall be kept in good faith and without evil intent. (reference) |
John Locke | 1690 | Their power, in the utmost bounds of it, is limited to the public good of the society. (Second Treatise of Government) |
US Declaration of Independence | 1776 | He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. (reference) |
US Constitution | 1791 | The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office. (reference) |
The Emancipation Proclamation | 1862 | "That the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States." (Abraham Lincoln) |
Treaty of Versailles | 1919 | Germany shall be bound to take suitable measures to remove any obstacle or danger to navigation, and to ensure the maintenance of good conditions of navigation. (reference) |
Winston S. Churchill | 1946 | Twice in our own lifetime we have seen the United States, against their wishes and their traditions, against arguments, the force of which it is impossible not to comprehend, drawn by irresistible forces, into these wars in time to secure the victory of the good cause, but only after frightful slaughter and devastation had occurred. ("Iron Curtain" Speech) |
Brown v. Board of Education | 1954 | It is the very foundation of good citizenship. (reference) |
John F. Kennedy | 1961 | To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge --to convert our good words into good deeds--in a new alliance for progress--to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. (reference) |
Roe v. Wade | 1973 | The District Court correctly refused injunctive, but erred in granting declaratory, relief to Hallford, who alleged no federally protected right not assertable as a defense against the good faith state prosecutions pending against him. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | His good sense and good principles would delight you. |
Through the Looking-Glass | Carroll, Lewis | Alice was glad to see that it revived him a good deal |
A Christmas Carol | Dickens, Charles | The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters and had lost the power for ever |
Life, the Universe and Everything | Douglas Adams | Ford was practicing being sullen and getting quite good at it. |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | I had ceased to be a writer of tolerably poor tales and essays, and had become a tolerably good Surveyor of the Customs |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | They are by no means such good canaille as is believed |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | He was no good at sums but he tried his best so that York might not lose |
King Richard III | Shakespeare, William | I was too hot to do somebody good That is too cold in thinking of it now. |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | Good Used Cars |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | And to feed them on board, I had a good bundle of hay, and a bag of corn |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Practice good hygiene. (references) | |
Maintain good nutrition. (references) | ||
Good hygiene is also important. (references) | ||
Business | Both offer good technology. (references) | |
German machinery enjoys good reputation in Poland. (references) | ||
Foreign firms can make good contacts at these shows. (references) | ||
Children | Korea | Education is compulsory through the age of 15, and most children obtain a good secondary education. (references) |
Iceland | Access to new buildings tends to be good, while efforts to make old buildings more accessible have lagged. (references) | |
Armenia | Some teachers are known to demand bribes from parents in return for good or passing grades for their children. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | Lithuania | Living conditions in both centers were good. (references) |
Ethiopia | Jehovah's Witnesses have stated that due to the lack of good donated plots in the capital, they have purchased their own. (references) | |
Armenia | In Yerevan and major regional media markets, private television stations offer independent news coverage of good technical quality. (references) | |
Economic History | Uzbekistan | Air transport to Uzbekistan is good. (references) |
Kazakhstan | Used equipment has good sales prospects. (references) | |
Ghana | Labor-management relations are fairly good. (references) | |
Human Rights | Swaziland | Local judges serve indefinitely with good behavior. (references) |
Malawi | NGO's report good collaboration with prison authorities. (references) | |
Guatemala | Many are released either on good behavior or because they never are sentenced. (references) | |
Minorities | Pakistan | Young Ahmadis complain of difficulty in gaining admittance to good colleges and consequently having to go abroad for higher education. (references) |
United Kingdom | The majority of citizens in Northern Ireland support the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which aims to create a lasting settlement to the conflict in Northern Ireland and a society based on equality of opportunity and human rights. (references) | |
China | Originally designed to protect and maintain minority cultures, this divided education system places those graduating from minority schools at a disadvantage in competing for jobs in Government and business, which require good Chinese-language skills. (references) | |
Political Economy | SWITZERLAND | Enforcement is generally very good. (references) |
Bolivia | U.S.-Bolivian relations are very good. (references) | |
Hong Kong | Hong Kong's human rights record is very good. (references) | |
Political Rights | Uganda | The CRC was set up to examine the constitutional provisions relating to sovereignty, political systems, democracy, and good governance; however, it did not receive sufficient funding to carry out its mandate. (references) |
United Kingdom | In Northern Ireland the devolved institutions established under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement functioned precariously due to continuing controversies over the participation of Sinn Fein in government as long as the IRA refused to decommission its weapons. (references) | |
Cameroon | Delegate-run cities, of which there were only four in 1992, by 1996 included most of the provincial capitals and some division capitals in pro-opposition provinces, but not in the southern provinces that had tended to support the CPDM. In 1998 a 60-member Committee on Good Governance, created by the Government, publicly recommended that the Government eliminate the position of delegate to allow elected local officials to manage municipal governments more freely. (references) | |
Trade | El Salvador | C. Movies contrary to ethics and good behavior. (references) |
Philippines | The U.S. has a good procurement record under ADB projects. (references) | |
Vietnam | Duties imposed depend on the good imported, country of origin, etc. (references) | |
Travel | Bahrain | Health standards are good. (references) |
Singapore | Traffic flow is quite good. (references) | |
Argentina | Sanitary conditions are good. (references) | |
Women | Korea | As examples of gender-discriminatory remarks, the Ministry cited statements that emphasized women's traditional roles in families, stressed men's leadership in society, and encouraged female students to work for good marriages instead of embarking on a career after graduation. (references) |
Yemen | A foreign woman who wishes to marry a citizen man must prove to the Ministry that she is "of good cond |