Ethics: principles, applications, and contemporary issues

goodness: KANT

Goodness is an elusive concept since it doesn't have a definite definition. We all have some idea of what goodness is or ought to be, but it is not easy putting it in words since we have numerous definitions available of the term. According to most popular dictionary definitions of the term, goodness is "the quality or condition of being good... moral excellence, virtue" (Oxford, Great Britain: Oxford University Press, 1978), vol. III. On the surface, this definition appears reasonable enough. You are a good person or a person with goodness if you exhibit attributes such as virtue, moral strength, honesty etc. But when we say goodness is the state of being good (another dictionary definition), what are we actually saying. What is that state of being good? How do we define 'good' then? How can we say that this person is being good? Though we have fair idea of when a person is being good or bad, there has to be criteria to determine goodness. If a person meets that criterion, he should be considered good, otherwise not.

Goodness should then be something that can be judged with the help of a checklist or criterion. For example if X encounters a situation Y, and while he knows he must speak the truth, he also knows truth can get him into trouble. What does he do then? If he still speaks the truth and fights off temptation to tell a little white lie, we can consider him a good person or someone with goodness. Or if T. meets N. In a party and recognizes N. As the person who had betrayed him before and is now in desperate need of his help. What will T. do now? Will he help N. regardless of how N. behaved towards him earlier or will he avenge the wrong committed against him and let N. suffer? If he does the former and decides to help N. even though he had been betrayed by him, the person is acting out of goodness. But if he refuses to help, would we say he is being selfish. Probably not, we would still think N. did not deserve to be helped by someone he/she had once wronged. But goodness factor would be missing from the latter action.

When we study definition of goodness in more depth, we see the flaws in dictionary definitions. A person is good or acting out of goodness only when he can fight off temptations in certain sticky situations and does what is right according to rules of morality and virtue. In this regard, we find Immanuel Kant's theory of goodness quite persuasive and relevant. Kant maintained that goodness was more a matter of courage and strength in the times of temptations than virtue or morality. He asserted that we all have a good sense of right and wrong but it is when we have the courage to do the right thing under unfavorable circumstances that we can actually be considered good.

Kant understood that in our lives, we often come across situations that put our sense of virtue and morality to toughest test. In these times, we do not just need to be good, or have a hazy sense of right and wrong but what we actually need is strength and courage to actually act on our beliefs and values. Kant maintained that goodness is something that gives " a positive command to a man, namely to bring all his capacities and inclinations under his (reason's) control and so to rule over himself... For unless reason holds the reins of government in its own hands, man's feelings and inclinations play the master over him." (Kant 1991, 208)

The concept of good will is also closely associated with Kant's theory of goodness. Kant felt that for a person to display signs of goodness, he must work with a good will. Good will is something which doesn't need any verification or additional evidence of it being a good and positive force. He further explained that "the only thing good without qualification is a 'good will'. While the phrases 'he's good hearted', 'she's good natured' and 'she means well' are common, 'the good will' as Kant thinks of it is not the same as any of these ordinary notions. The idea of a good will is closer to the idea of a 'good person', or, more archaically, a 'person of good will'... The basic idea is that what makes a good person good is his possession of a will that is in a certain way 'determined' by, or makes its decisions on the basis of, the moral law. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)