Full Idea
The key notion is the concept of need, …as when we say what a plant or animal of a certain species needs to have, …and what its operative features, such roots, leaves, hearts and lungs, need to do.
Gist of Idea
The essential thing is the 'needs' of plants and animals, and their operative parts
Source
Philippa Foot (Rationality and Virtue [1994], p.164)
Book Reference
Foot,Philippa: 'Moral Dilemmas' [OUP 2002], p.164
A Reaction
Good. That takes it away from the idea of a function, which could be possessed by an inanimate machine (even though that still entails success and failure). Strictly, we need oxygen, but the goodness resides in the lungs.
Related Idea
Idea 22477 Calling a knife or farmer or speech or root good does not involve attitudes or feelings [Foot]