What is the good?
This question is really, “What is the good life? Or what does it mean to BE good?” It doesn’t mean just “what is good”, which can be answered with pecan pie or the movie Spirited Away. They are “good”, which means aesthetically good, but when we ask “what is the good” we are wondering what it means to be a good human. This is the foundational question of ethics.
Kreeft says that Aristotle states in his first sentence that goodness is a goal. It isn’t just something that happens to us, nor is it something that comes naturally. It is something that we aim toward. No one hits the goal perfectly, but certainly some get closer to that goal than others.
But what kind of goal is it? Is goodness simply a black and white, either you have it or you don’t? Some think of “righteousness” this way. Either you are “righteous” or you are not; either you have a relationship with God or you don’t; either you are a saint or you are unregenerated. But the idea of goodness isn’t necessarily the same as being righteous. Certainly the biblical idea of righteousness has to do with one’s standing before God. But one’s closeness to the mark of goodness may not have anything to do with it. Certainly righteousness isn’t something we work at.
No comments:
Post a Comment