Defining Good

Saying that happiness makes  a good life seems like a simple platitude. We should try to be more specific: To define good, we look at occupations. Each occupation has a good that is related to its function. A musician or a carpenter are good based on how well they perform in their occupation. The question is, “What is the overall occupation of mankind?” Our hands and feet have certain functions, but what is the overall occupation of being human. We can’t say just being alive is it because then we would be no different than a plant. So this eliminates things that have to do with nutrition and growth. If our function is a life of only seeing and perceiving, we would be no different from animals. Human beings both recognize and obey certain principles and strive for excellence in obeying them. Therefore we can conclude that what humans consider good has to do with activities of the soul.

Since we recognize a good musician or a good carpenter then we also should recognize what is good for life as a whole. Goodness as it applies to each particular subject is according to actions. A carpenter will build something well and a musician play well.  What actions of the soul prove that a lifestyle is good and the person will do well? Certainly we would want to know what they are and how to perform them with excellence. This is what is known as virtue; a person performing the occupation of being a human at its very best. Not as a single event but as something that brings happiness to an entire life. This describes what we mean by “good” as it pertains to ethics and happiness.