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Single Idea 19450

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / b. Types of good ]

Full Idea

Reason, love and power of will are perfections of man; they are his highest powers, his absolute essence in so far as he is man, the purpose of his existence. Man exists in order to think, love and will.

Gist of Idea

Reason, love and will are the highest perfections and essence of man - the purpose of his life

Source

Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], I)

Book Ref

Feuerbach,Ludwig: 'The Fiery Brook: Selected Writings', ed/tr. Hanfi,Zawar [Anchor 1972], p.99


A Reaction

Feuerbach was a notable atheist, but adopts a religious style of language which modern atheists would find rather alien. Personally I love talk of ideals and perfections. Ideals have been discredited in modern times, but need a revival.


The 19 ideas with the same theme [candidates for what is supremely good]:

The chief good is unity, sometimes seen as prudence, or God, or intellect [Eucleides]
Good first, then beauty, then reason, then knowledge, then pleasure [Plato, by PG]
Plato's legacy to European thought was the Good, the Beautiful and the True [Plato, by Gray]
Intelligence and sight, and some pleasures and honours, are candidates for being good in themselves [Aristotle]
Goods are external, of the soul, and of the body; those of the soul (such as action) come first [Aristotle]
Goodness is when a thing (such as a circle) is complete, and conforms with its nature [Aristotle]
Final goods: confidence, prudence, freedom, enjoyment and no pain, good spirits, virtue [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
The essences of good and evil are in dispositions to choose [Epictetus]
Like a warming fire, what is good by nature should be good for everyone [Sext.Empiricus]
Pagans produced three hundred definitions of the highest good [Augustine, by Grayling]
The good is the virtuous, the pleasing, or the useful [Leibniz]
Perfection comes through the senses (Beauty), through reason (Truth), and through moral will (Good) [Baumgarten, by Tolstoy]
Reason, love and will are the highest perfections and essence of man - the purpose of his life [Feuerbach]
Goodness is a combination of love and knowledge [Russell]
The three main values are good, right and beauty [Moore,GE, by Ross]
The three intrinsic goods are virtue, knowledge and pleasure [Ross]
The four goods are: virtue, pleasure, just allocation of pleasure, and knowledge [Ross]
The meaning of 'good' and other evaluations must include the object to which they attach [Foot]
Goodness is given either by a psychological state, or the attribution of a property [Korsgaard]