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Single Idea 22379

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

Full Idea

There is no describing the evaluative meaning of 'good', evaluation, commending, or anything of the sort, without fixing the object to which they are supposed to be attached.

Gist of Idea

The meaning of 'good' and other evaluations must include the object to which they attach

Source

Philippa Foot (Moral Beliefs [1959], p.112)

Book Ref

Foot,Philippa: 'Virtues and Vices' [Blackwell 1981], p.112

A Reaction

I go further, and say that a specification of the feature(s) of the object that produce the value must also be available (if requested). 'That's a good car, but I've no idea why' makes no sense. 'Apparently that's a good car', if other people know why.

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

3028 The chief good is unity, sometimes seen as prudence, or God, or intellect [Eucleides]
393 Good first, then beauty, then reason, then knowledge, then pleasure [Plato, by PG]
9274 Plato's legacy to European thought was the Good, the Beautiful and the True [Plato, by Gray]
5131 Intelligence and sight, and some pleasures and honours, are candidates for being good in themselves [Aristotle]
5135 Goods are external, of the soul, and of the body; those of the soul (such as action) come first [Aristotle]
5110 Goodness is when a thing (such as a circle) is complete, and conforms with its nature [Aristotle]
20843 Final goods: confidence, prudence, freedom, enjoyment and no pain, good spirits, virtue [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
23328 The essences of good and evil are in dispositions to choose [Epictetus]
22755 Like a warming fire, what is good by nature should be good for everyone [Sext.Empiricus]
7821 Pagans produced three hundred definitions of the highest good [Augustine, by Grayling]
12957 The good is the virtuous, the pleasing, or the useful [Leibniz]
8117 Perfection comes through the senses (Beauty), through reason (Truth), and through moral will (Good) [Baumgarten, by Tolstoy]
19450 Reason, love and will are the highest perfections and essence of man - the purpose of his life [Feuerbach]
21747 Goodness is a combination of love and knowledge [Russell]
5925 The three main values are good, right and beauty [Moore,GE, by Ross]
5910 The three intrinsic goods are virtue, knowledge and pleasure [Ross]
5932 The four goods are: virtue, pleasure, just allocation of pleasure, and knowledge [Ross]
22379 The meaning of 'good' and other evaluations must include the object to which they attach [Foot]
18224 Goodness is given either by a psychological state, or the attribution of a property [Korsgaard]