It is easy to claim that there is no such thing as the good without investigating it. It is easy to look at various contexts in which the good action is so hard to pin down, and say that the good doesn’t exist in that situation. It is easy to blithely look at various cultures and say that the good is different in different contexts and so there is no good.
It simply is not true. There is a good. It is being beneficial in relationship, whatever that relationship might be. The act of benefiting others might change, and it can certainly be complicated, but there is a good action.
Our ethically lazy self wants to deny the good. We don’t want to think about ethics because it is hard and it is complicated. We would prefer to do what is good to ourselves, which we think—wrong-headedly—we know so well. But if we are going to be good to ourselves, one of the things we must exercise is our ethical brains. We must consider what we will do to benefit others and do it.
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