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Single Idea 5932

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

Full Idea

Four things seem to be intrinsically good - virtue, pleasure, the allocation of pleasure to the virtuous, and knowledge.

Gist of Idea

The four goods are: virtue, pleasure, just allocation of pleasure, and knowledge

Source

W. David Ross (The Right and the Good [1930], §V)

Book Ref

Ross,W.David: 'The Right and the Good' [OUP 1930], p.140

A Reaction

I greatly admire a philosopher who has the courage to assert such a thing, in the face of centuries of scepticism about anyone's ability to even get started in this area. We need the bold assertions first; we can work back to doubts later, if necessary.

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]