Bouguereau's L'Innocence ("Innocence"). William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30 1825 – August 19 1905 was a French academic painter. Innocence is a term used to indicate a state of moral purity or general lack of Guilt, with respect to any kind of Crime, Sin, or wrongdoing Both the child and the lamb represent fragility and peacefulness, as seen in religious art. Peace, in the modern usage is a concept defined by the ideal state of relationship as absence of hostility at the international level that of a War. Sacred art is Imagery intended to uplift the Mind to the spiritual. The image of a mother and child together connotes such positive interpretation that it is codified into the Chinese character 好 hǎo, meaning "good. "

In Christianity, Satan is considered the ultimate bad, or force of evil, in the world. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Satan, ( Standard Hebrew Satan'el, English accuser) is a term that originates from the Abrahamic faiths, being traditionally

In religion, ethics, and philosophy, the phrase, good and evil refers to the evaluation of objects, desires, and behaviors across a dualistic spectrum, wherein in one direction are those aspects which are morally positive, and the other are morally negative. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Behavior or behaviour (see spelling differences) refers to the actions or Reactions of an object or Organism, usually A spectrum (plural spectra or spectrums) is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a continuum. The good is sometimes viewed as whatever entails reverence towards either life, continuity, happiness, or human flourishing, while evil is given to be the support for their opposites. Life is a state that distinguishes Organisms from non-living objects such as non-life and dead organisms being manifested by growth through Metabolism Continuity may refer to In mathematics: Continuous probability distribution or random variable in probability and statistics For Happiness is an Emotion associated with feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to Bliss and intense Joy. Eudaimonia ( Greek:) is a classical Greek word commonly translated as ' Happiness ' Evil, in many cultures is used to describe acts or thoughts which are contrary to some particular religion Depending on the context, good and evil may represent personal judgments, societal norms, or claims of absolute value related to human nature or to transcendent religious standards.

There is no consensus over whether either goodness or evil are intrinsic to human nature. Nature, in the broadest sense is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe. The nature of goodness has been given many treatments; one is that the good is based on the natural love, bonding, and affection that begins at the earliest stages of personal development; another is that goodness is a product of knowing truth. Love is any of a number of Emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong Affection. Differing views also exist as to why evil might arise. Many religious and philosophical traditions claim that evil behavior is an aberration that results from the imperfect human condition (eg. "The Fall of Man"). The Fall of Man, or simply the Fall, in Christian doctrine refers to the transition of the first humans from a state of innocent obedience to God, Sometimes, evil is attributed to the existence of free will and human agency. The question of free will Agency is a Philosophical concept of the capacity of an agent to act in a world Some argue that evil itself is ultimately based in an ignorance of truth (i. The meaning of the word truth extends from Honesty, Good faith, and Sincerity in general to agreement with Fact or Reality e. , human value, sanctity, divinity). SACRED was a Cubesat built by the Student Satellite Program of the University of Arizona. Divinity and divine (sometimes 'the Divinity' or 'the Divine' are broadly applied but loosely defined terms used variously within different faiths and belief systems — A variety of Enlightenment thinkers have alleged the opposite, by suggesting that evil is learned as a consequence of tyrannical social structures, good is good evil is bad. Social structure is a term frequently used in Sociology and Social theory — yet rarely defined or clearly conceptualised (Abercrombie et al And by a rationalist or evolutionary perspective, humans are biologically adapted to carry out a variety of game theory strategies, some of which may promote individual utility at the expense of group utility, which, if the disparity is extreme enough, would be termed evil. eVolution is the third Album by eLDee, it was due to be released in 2008 Game theory is a branch of Applied mathematics that is used in the Social sciences (most notably Economics) Biology, Engineering, Goodness in mathematics has also been related to entropy and information theory, as well as how well a statistical model will reflect a set of observations (known of as goodness of fit). In Thermodynamics (a branch of Physics) entropy, symbolized by S, is a measure of the unavailability of a system ’s Energy Information theory is a branch of Applied mathematics and Electrical engineering involving the quantification of Information. The goodness of fit of a Statistical model describes how well it fits a set of observations

Although goodness is generally not considered to be a real or well-established property under the laws of physics, each person's highly individual concept of the perfect good has profound psychological significance. Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. Agreement is divided over the extent to which this with the real world, but there is little disagreement that one's concept motivates one's actions in the real world.

Theories of moral goodness inquire into what sorts of things are good, and what the word "good" really means in the abstract. As a philosophical concept, goodness might represent a hope that natural love be continuous, expansive, and all-inclusive. Hope is a Belief in a positive outcome related to events and Circumstances in one's life In a monotheistic religious context, it is by this hope that an important concept of God is derived —as an infinite projection of love, manifest as goodness in the lives of people. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. Infinity (symbolically represented with ∞) comes from the Latin infinitas or "unboundedness In other contexts, the good is viewed to be whatever produces the best consequences upon the lives of people, especially with regard to their states of well being.

Origin of the concept

Further information: Morality#Development_of_morality

While every language has a word expressing good in the sense of "having the right or desirable quality" (ἀρετή) and bad in the sense "undesirable", the notion of "good and evil" in an absolute moral or religious sense is not ancient, but emerges out of notions of ritual purity and impurity. Morality (from the Latin la moralitas "manner character proper behavior" has three principal meanings Arete (Greek; ˈærəteɪ in English in its basic sense means " Goodness " " Excellence " or " Virtue " of Ritual purification is a feature of many Religions The aim of these Rituals is to remove specifically defined uncleanliness prior to a particular type The basic meanings of κακός and ἀγαθός are "bad, cowardly" and "good, brave, capable", and their absolute sense emerges only around 400 BC, with Pre-Socratic philosophy, in particular Democritus. The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC. The Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers were active before Socrates or contemporaneously but expounding knowledge developed earlier Democritus ( Greek:) was a pre-Socratic Greek Materialist Philosopher (born at Abdera in Thrace ca ^[1] Morality in this absolute sense solidifies in the dialogues of Plato, together with the emergence of monotheistic thought (notably in Euthyphro which ponders the concept of piety (τὸ ὅσιον) as a moral absolute). Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece For the Celtic Frost album see Monotheist (album In Theology, monotheism (from Greek grc [[wiktμόνος μόνος]] Euthyphro is one of Plato 's early dialogues dated to after 399 BCE. The idea is further developed in Late Antiquity, in Neoplatonism, Gnosticism and by the Church Fathers. Late Antiquity (c 300-600 is a Periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical Philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD founded by Gnosticism (γνώσις gnōsis, Knowledge) refers to a diverse Syncretistic Religious movement consisting of various Belief systems The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church

This development from the relative or habitual to the absolute is also evident in the terms ethics and morality both being derived from terms for "regional custom", Greek ήθος and Latin mores, respectively (see also siðr). Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life Morality (from the Latin la moralitas "manner character proper behavior" has three principal meanings

Descriptive, meta-ethical, and normative fields

It is possible to treat the essential theories of value by the use of a philosophical and academic approach. Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life In Philosophy, meta-ethics (sometimes called "analytic ethics" is the branch of Ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties Normative ethics is the branch of philosophical Ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when we think about the question “how ought one act Descriptive ethics, also known as comparative ethics is the study of people's beliefs about Morality. Consequentialism refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action Deontological ethics or deontology (from Greek grc δέον deon, "obligation duty" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Virtue theory is a branch of Moral philosophy that emphasizes character rather than rules or consequences as the key element of ethical thinking The ethics of care is a normative ethical theory; that is a theory about what makes actions right or wrong Morality (from the Latin la moralitas "manner character proper behavior" has three principal meanings Bioethics is the philosophical study of the ethical controversies brought about by advances in Biology and Medicine. Cyberethics is a branch of Ethics that studies ethical dilemma brought on by the emergence of digital technologies Medical ethics is primarily a field of Applied ethics, the study of Moral values and judgments as they apply to Medicine. Engineering ethics is the field of Applied ethics which examines and sets standards for Engineers ' obligations to the public, their clients employers and Environmental ethics is the part of Environmental philosophy which considers the ethical relationship between Human beings and the Natural environment Human rights refers to the "basic Rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled "Animal liberation" redirects here for other uses see Animal liberation (disambiguation. Legal ethics refers to an Ethical code governing the conduct of people engaged in the Practice of law. Media ethics is the subdivision of Applied ethics dealing with the specific ethical principles and standards of media, including Broadcast media, Film Business ethics is a form of Applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment Fundamental issues in marketing ethics Frameworks of analysis for marketing ethics Possible frameworks Value -oriented framework analyzing ethical Ethics is a branch of Philosophy dealing with right and wrong in human behavior Just War theory is a Doctrine of military ethics of Roman philosophical and Catholic origin studied by moral Theologians Ethicists and international JUSTICE is a Human rights and law reform organisation based in the United Kingdom. Philosophic or ethic value is a property of objects, including Physical objects as well as Abstract objects (e Duty (from "due" that which is owing O Fr deu did past participle of devoir Lat Virtue ( Latin virtus; Greek) is moral Excellence. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting individual Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal) is a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have Freedom, or the idea of being free is a broad concept that Trust is a relationship of reliance A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill policies, ethical codes Law and their previous promises The question of free will Consent as a term of jurisprudence is a possible defence (an Excuse or justification against civil or criminal liability Moral responsibility can refer to two different but related things Confucius ( lit " Master Kung " September 28, 551 BC - 479 BC) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher Life Mencius also known by his birth name Meng Ke or Ko, was born in the State of Zou (simp Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg Jeremy Bentham ( IPA: or) (15 February 1748&ndash6 June 1832 was an English Jurist, Philosopher, and legal and Social reformer John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (ˈsœːɐn ˈkʰiɐ̯kəˌɡ̊ɒˀ in Danish Anglicized as;) Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist Richard Mervyn Hare ( 21 March 1919  &ndash 29 January 2002) was an English moral philosopher who held the post of White's John Rawls ( February 21, 1921  &ndash November 24, 2002) was an American Philosopher, a Professor of Robert Nozick ( November 16, 1938  &ndash January 23, 2002) was an American Philosopher and Pellegrino University This list of Ethics topics puts articles relevant to well-known ethical (right and wrong good and bad debates and decisions in one place - including practical problems long List of ethicists including religious or political figures recognized by those outside their tradition as having made major contributions to ideas about Ethics, or raised major In properly analyzing theories of value, everyday beliefs are not only carefully catalogued and described, but also rigorously analyzed and judged.

There are at least two basic ways of presenting a theory of value, based on two different kinds of questions which people ask:

• What do people find good, and what do they despise?
• What really is good, and what really is bad?

The two questions are subtly different. One may answer the first question by researching the world by use of social science, and examining the preferences that people assert. However, one may answer the second question by use of reasoning, introspection, prescription, and generalization. The former kind of method of analysis is called "descriptive", because it attempts to describe what people actually view as good or evil; while the latter is called "normative", because it tries to actively prohibit evils and cherish goods. Descriptive linguistics is the work of analyzing and describing how Language is spoken (or how it was spoken in the past by a group of people in a speech community Normative has specialized meanings in several academic disciplines These descriptive and normative approaches can be complementary. For example, tracking the decline of the popularity of slavery across cultures is the work of descriptive ethics, while advising that slavery be avoided is normative.

Meta-ethics is the study of the fundamental questions concerning the nature and origins of the good and the vile, including inquiry into the nature of good and evil, as well as the meaning of evaluative language. In Philosophy, meta-ethics (sometimes called "analytic ethics" is the branch of Ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties In this respect, meta-ethics is not necessarily tied to investigations into how others see the good, or of asserting what is good.

Theories of the intrinsically good

A satisfying formulation of goodness would be valuable because it might allow one to construct a good life or society by reliable processes of deduction, elaboration or prioritization. One could answer the ancient question, "How then should we live?", among many other important related questions. It has long been thought that this question can best be answered by examining what it is that necessarily makes a thing valuable, or what the source of value consists in.

Transcendental realism

One attempt to define goodness describes it as a property of the world. According to this claim, to talk about the good is to talk about something real within the object itself which exists independently of the perception of it. Plato was one advocate of this view, in his expression that there is such a thing as an eternal realm of forms or ideas, and that the greatest of the ideas and the essence of being was goodness, or The good. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Plato 's Theory of Forms asserts that Forms (or Ideas) and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess The good was defined by many ancient Greeks and other ancient philosophers as a perfect and eternal idea, or blueprint. The good is the right relation between all that exists, and this exists in the mind of the Divine, or some heavenly realm. The good is the harmony of a just political community, love, friendship, the ordered human soul of virtues, and the right relation to the Divine and to Nature. In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously and chords actual or implied in Music. Virtue ( Latin virtus; Greek) is moral Excellence. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting individual The characters in Plato's dialogues mention the many virtues of a philosopher, or a lover of wisdom.

Many people are theists, who support the idea that god(s) created the universe. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. Such persons may, therefore, claim that the universe has a purpose and value according to the will of such a creator(s), and which lies partially beyond human understanding. A creator deity is a Deity in a Creation myth responsible for the creation of the World (or Universe) For instance, Thomas Aquinas was a proponent of this view, and believed to have proven arguments for the existence of a god, and the right relations that humans ought to have to the divine first cause. Primum movens (Latin First cause) is a term used in philosophical and theological Arguments for the existence of God in connection

Monotheists might also hope in the popular production of infinite universal love. Such hope is often translated as "faith", and wisdom itself is largely defined within religious doctrine as a knowledge and understanding of innate goodness. Faith is a Belief in the trustworthiness of an Idea. Formal usage of the word "faith" is usually reserved for concepts of Religion, as in Wisdom is a concept of personal gaining of Knowledge, Understanding, Experience, discretion and intuitive understanding, along with a capacity The concepts of innocence, spiritual purity, and salvation are likewise related to a concept of being in, or returning to, a state of goodness —one which, according to various teachings of "enlightenment", approaches a state of holiness (or Godliness). Innocence is a term used to indicate a state of moral purity or general lack of Guilt, with respect to any kind of Crime, Sin, or wrongdoing Spirituality, in a narrow sense concerns itself with matters of the Spirit, a concept closely tied to religious belief and Faith, a transcendent reality In Theology, salvation can mean three related things being saved from or Liberation from something such as Suffering or the punishment of

Another spiritual, transcendental viewpoint is that of Taoism, the ancient Chinese philosophy which advocated quietism and conformity to the Way, or Tao: "The Tao is the natural order of things. Taoism (pronounced /ˈdaʊɪzəm/ or /ˈtaʊɪzəm/ also spelled '''Daoism''') refers to a variety of related Philosophical and Religious traditions It is a force that flows through every living or sentient object, as well as through the entire universe".

Some believe that good is anything that increases the probability of the universe eventually reaching the Omega Point, and bad is anything that decreases that probability. Omega point is a term invented by French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe the maximum level of complexity and consciousness to which the universe

Perfectionism

It was the belief of Aristotle that virtues consisted in the realization of potentials which were unique to humanity, such as the use of reason. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. This type of view, called perfectionism, has been recently defended in modern form by Thomas Hurka.

An entirely different form of perfectionism has arisen in response to rapid technological change. Some techno-optimists, especially transhumanists, avow a form of perfectionism in which the capacity to determine good and trade off fundamental values, is expressed not by humans but by software, genetic engineering of humans, artificial intelligence. Transhumanism (sometimes symbolized by >H or H+) a term often used as a synonym for " Human enhancement " is an international intellectual Genetic engineering, Recombinant DNA technology, genetic modification/manipulation (GM and gene splicing are terms that apply to the direct Skeptics assert that rather than perfect goodness, it would be only the appearance of perfect goodness, reinforced by persuasion technology and probably brute force of violent technological escalation, which would cause people to accept such rulers or rules authored by them. Technological escalation describes the fact that whenever two parties are in competition each side tends to employ continuing technological improvements to defeat the other

Welfarist theories

Welfarist theories of value are those which say that that which is good, and hence valuable, are due to their effects on the well-being of persons.

Subjective theories of wellbeing

It is difficult to figure out where an immaterial trait such as "goodness" could reside in the world. A counterproposal is to locate values inside people. Some philosophers go so far as to say that if some state of affairs does not tend to arouse a desirable subjective state in self-aware beings, then it cannot be good. The state of affairs is that combination of circumstances applying within a society or group at a particular time

Most philosophers that think goods have to create desirable mental states also say that goods are experiences of self-aware beings. These philosophers often distinguish the experience, which they call an intrinsic good, from the things that seem to cause the experience, which they call "inherent" goods. Failing to distinguish the two leads to a subject-object problem in which it is not clear who is evaluating what object. The subject-object problem is a longstanding philosophical issue

In some theories there is no higher collective value than that of maximizing pleasure for individual(s). Some have even defined goodness and that which is intrinsically valuable as the experience of pleasure, and the bad as the experience of pain. This view is called Hedonism, a monistic theory of value. Hedonism is the Philosophy that Pleasure is of ultimate importance, the most important pursuit It has two main varieties: simple, and Epicurean.

Simple hedonism is the view that physical pleasure is the ultimate good. However, the ancient philosopher Epicurus used the word 'pleasure' in a more general sense which encompassed a range of states from bliss to contentment to relief. Contrary to popular caricature, he valued pleasures of the mind to bodily pleasures, and advocated moderation as the surest path to happiness.

Jeremy Bentham's book The Principles of Morals and Legislation prioritized goods by considering pleasure, pain and consequences. Jeremy Bentham ( IPA: or) (15 February 1748&ndash6 June 1832 was an English Jurist, Philosopher, and legal and Social reformer This theory had a wide effect on public affairs, up to and including the present day. A similar system was later named Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill. Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential More broadly, utilitarian theories are examples of Consequentialism. All utilitarian theories are based upon the maxim of utility, which states that that which is good is that which provides the greatest happiness for the greatest number. It follows from this principle that that which brings happiness to the greatest number of people, is a good.

One of the benefits of tracing good to pleasure and pain is that both things seem to be easily understandable, both in oneself and to an extent in others. For the hedonist, the explanation for helping behavior may come in the form of empathy—the ability of a being to "feel" another's pain. People tend to value the lives of gorillas more than those of mosquitoes because the gorilla lives and feels, making it easier to empathize with them. This idea is carried forward in the ethical relationship view and has given rise to the animal rights movement and parts of the peace movement. An ethical relationship, in most theories of Ethics that employ the term is a basic and trustworthy relationship that one has to another human being that cannot necessarily "Animal liberation" redirects here for other uses see Animal liberation (disambiguation. A peace movement is a Social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war (or all wars minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or The impact of sympathy on human behavior is compatible with Enlightenment views, including David Hume's stances that the idea of a self with unique identity is illusory, and that morality ultimately comes down to sympathy and fellow feeling for others, or the exercise of approval underlying moral judgements. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy

A view adopted by James Griffin (philosopher) attempts to find a subjective alternative to hedonism as an intrinsic value. He argues that it is the satisfaction of one's informed desires which constitutes wellbeing, and not necessarily whether or not said desires actually cause the agent to experience happiness. Moreover, these preferences must be life-relevant, that is, contributing to the success of a person's life overall.

Desire satisfaction may occur without the agent's awareness of the satisfaction of the desire. For example, if a man wishes for his legal will to be enacted after his death, and it is, then his desire has been satisfied despite the fact that he will never experience or know of it.

Objective theories of wellbeing

The idea that the ultimate good exists and is not orderable but is globally measurable is reflected in various ways in classical economics, green economics, welfare economics and the Gross National Happiness and measuring well-being theories, all of which focus on various ways of assessing progress towards that goal, a so-called Genuine Progress Indicator. Classical economics is widely regarded as the first modern school of economic thought. Ecological economics is a Transdisciplinary field of academic research within Economics that aims to address the interdependence between human economies and natural Welfare economics is a branch of Economics that uses microeconomic techniques to simultaneously determine Allocative efficiency within an economy and the Gross National Happiness (GNH is an attempt to define Quality of life in more holistic and psychological terms than Gross National Product. Quality of life is the degree of well-being felt by an individual or group of people The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI is a concept in green economics and Welfare economics that has been suggested to replace Gross domestic product (GDP Modern economics thus reflects very ancient philosophy, but a calculation or quantitative or other process based on cardinality and statistics replaces the simple ordering of values. Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection analysis interpretation or explanation and presentation of Data.

For example, in both economics and in folk wisdom, the value of a thing seems to rise so long as it is relatively scarce. However, if it becomes too scarce, it leads often to a conflict, and can reduce collective value. See the separate analysis of wealth. Wealth derives from the old English word "weal" which means "well-being

In the classical political economy of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, and in its critique by Karl Marx, human labor is seen as the ultimate source of all new economic value. Political economy originally was the term for studying production buying and selling and their relations with law custom and government Adam Smith ( baptised 16 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of Political economy. David Ricardo (18 April 1772 &ndash 11 September 1823 was an English political economist, often credited with systematizing economics and was one of the most influential This is an objective theory of value (see value theory which attributes value to real production-costs, and ultimately expenditures of human labor-time (see also law of value. Value theory encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how why and to what degree humans should or do value things whether the thing is a person idea object or anything else The law of value is a concept in Karl Marx 's critique of Political economy. It contrasts with marginal utility theory, which argues that the value of labor depends on subjective preferences by consumers, which may however also be objectively studied. In Economics, the marginal utility of a good or of a service is the Utility of the specific use to which an agent would put a given increase

The economic value of labor may be assessed technically in terms of its use-value or utility or commercially in terms of its exchange-value, price or production cost (see also labor power. In Marx's critique of Political economy, any labor-product has a value and a use value, and if it is traded as a Commodity in markets it In Economics, utility is a measure of the relative satisfaction from or desirability of Consumption of various Goods and services. In Political economy and especially Marxian economics, exchange value refers to one of four major attributes of a commodity, i Price in Economics and Business is the result of an exchange and from that trade we assign a numerical Monetary value to a good, Labour power (in German Arbeitskraft, or labour force is a crucial concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of capitalist Political economy But its value may also be socially assessed in terms of its contribution to the wealth and well-being of a society. Wealth derives from the old English word "weal" which means "well-being Quality of life is the degree of well-being felt by an individual or group of people

In non-market societies, labor may be valued primarily in terms of skill, time, and output, as well as moral or social criteria and legal obligations. In market societies, labor is valued economically primarily through the labor market. Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning of the Market and dynamics for labour. The price of labor may then be set by supply and demand, by strike action or legislation, or by legal or professional entry-requirements into occupations. Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal by Employees to perform work.

Mid-range theories

Conceptual metaphor theories argue against both subjective and objective conceptions of value and meaning, and focus on the relationships between body and other essential elements of human life. In Cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor refers to the understanding of one idea or Conceptual domain in terms of another for example understanding Quantity Objectivity is both an important and very difficult concept to pin down in philosophy In effect, conceptual metaphor theories treat ethics as an ontology problem and the issue of how to work-out values as a negotiation of these metaphors, not the application of some abstraction or a strict standoff between parties who have no way to understand each other's views. In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part --> Abstraction is the process or result of generalization by reducing the information

Goodness and agency

Agent-centered theories

One more recent philosophical proposal has defined good as "That which increases the quality and quantity of choices available overall. " These approaches have been called choice optimization theories. This maxim might be countered by the phenomenon of opportunity costs observed by social scientists. Opportunity cost or economic opportunity loss is the value of a product forgone to produce or obtain Opportunity cost is when people who are confronted with a greater number of choices also experience greater dismay at their choices after the fact, because of the missed opportunities.

In his Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen asserted free time as the most fundamental good and systems of organizing which enabled it as the most fundamental value in civilization. First published in 1999 Development as Freedom is a book focused on International development and written by Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen CH (Hon (অমর্ত্য কুমার সেন Ômorto Kumar Shen) (born 3 November 1933) is an Indian Leisure or free time, is a period of Time spent out of work and essential domestic Activity. He refuted the common claim that Asian value theorists had devalued freedom and was clear that a marketplace (creating unity via pricing) valuing free time could be created. Political freedom is the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the use of coercion or aggression Marilyn Waring took a similar view from a feminist perspective, arguing women's time was undervalued and especially the free time they used to raise and teach children. Marilyn Waring, CNZM (born on 7 October 1952 in Ngaruawahia) is a New Zealand Feminist, an Activist for "female Feminism is a discourse that involves various movements theories, and Philosophies which are concerned with the issue of Gender difference, advocate Waring also strongly denied that military hardware or activities were of any value, and attempted to reconcile peace or welfare views of good with the ecological values. Peace, in the modern usage is a concept defined by the ideal state of relationship as absence of hostility at the international level that of a War.

Virtue theories

John Rawls's book A Theory of Justice prioritized social arrangements and goods based on their contribution to justice. John Rawls ( February 21, 1921  &ndash November 24, 2002) was an American Philosopher, a Professor of A Theory of Justice is a widely-read book of political and Moral philosophy by John Rawls. JUSTICE is a Human rights and law reform organisation based in the United Kingdom. Rawls defined justice as fairness, especially in distributing social goods, defined fairness in terms of procedures, and attempted to prove that just institutions and lives are good, if rational individuals' goods are considered fairly. Rawls's crucial invention was the original position, a procedure in which one tries to make objective moral decisions by refusing to let personal facts about oneself enter one's moral calculations. The original position is a hypothetical situation developed by American Philosopher John Rawls as a Thought experiment to replace the imagery of a savage

One problem with the approaches of Rawls is that it is overly procedural. Procedurally fair processes of the type used by Rawls may not leave enough room for judgment, and therefore, reduce the totality of goodness. For example, if two people are found to own an orange, the standard fair procedure is to cut it in two and give half to each. However, if one wants to eat it while the other wants the rind to flavor a cake, cutting it in two is clearly less good than giving the peel to the baker and feeding the core to the eater.

Applying procedural fairness to an entire society therefore seems certain to create recognizable inefficiencies, and therefore be unfair, and (by the equivalence of justice with fairness) unjust.

However, procedural processes are not always necessarily damning in this way. Kant, a great influence for Rawls, similarly applies a lot of procedural practice within the practical application of The Categorical Imperative, however, this is indeed not based solely on 'fairness'. Even though an example like the one above regarding the orange would not be something that required the practical application of The Categorical Imperative, it is important to draw distinction between Kant and Rawls, and note that Kant's Theory would not necessarily lead to the same problems Rawls' does - i. e. , the cutting in half of the orange. Kant's Theory promotes acting out of Duty - acting for the Summum Bonum for him, The Good Will - and in fact encourages Judgement, too. What this would mean is that the outcome of the Orange's distribution would not be such a simple process for Kant as the reason why it would be wanted by both parties would necessarily have to be a part of the Judgement process, thus eliminating the problem that Rawls' account suffers here.

Agent-external theories

Society, life and ecology

Many views value unity as a good: to go beyond eudaimonia by saying that an individual person's flourishing is valuable only as a means to the flourishing of society as a whole. Eudaimonia ( Greek:) is a classical Greek word commonly translated as ' Happiness ' In other words, a single person's life is, ultimately, not important or worthwhile in itself, but is good only as a means to the success of society as a whole. Some elements of Confucianism are an example of this, encouraging the view that people ought to conform as individuals to demands of a peaceful and ordered society. Confucianism ( is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the fifth century B

According to the naturalistic view, the flourishing of society is not, or not the only, intrinsically good thing. Defenses of this notion are often formulated by reference to biology, and observations that living things compete more with their own kind than with other kinds. Foundations of modern biology There are five unifying principles Rather, what is of intrinsic good is the flourishing of all sentient life; extending to those animals which have some level of similar sentience, such as Great Ape personhood. Great ape personhood is a movement to create legal recognition of Bonobos Common chimpanzees Gorillas and Orangutans (the non- Human Others go farther, by declaring that life itself is of intrinsic value.

By another approach, one achieves peace and agreement by focusing, not on one's peers (who may be rivals or competitors), but on the common environment. The reasoning goes that as living beings it is clearly and objectively good we are surrounded by an ecosystem that supports life. Life is a state that distinguishes Organisms from non-living objects such as non-life and dead organisms being manifested by growth through Metabolism Indeed, if we weren't, we couldn't even recognize that or discuss it. The anthropic principle in cosmology recognizes this view. In Physics and Cosmology, the anthropic principle states that humans should take into account the constraints that human existence imposes on the kind of theoretical Physical cosmology, as a branch of Astronomy, is the study of the large-scale structure of the Universe and is concerned with fundamental questions about its

Under materialism or even embodiment values, or in any system that recognizes the validity of ecology as a scientific study of limits and potentials, an ecosystem is a fundamental good. The Philosophy of materialism holds that the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is Matter, and is considered a form of Physicalism. Ecology (from Greek grc οἶκος oikos, "house(hold" and grc -λογία -logia) is the scientific study of To all who investigate, it seems that goodness, or value, exists within an ecosystem, Earth. EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001 Creatures within that ecosystem and wholly dependent on it, evaluate good relative to what else could be achieved there. In other words, good is situated in a particular place and one does not dismiss everything that is not available there (such as very low gravity or absolutely abundant sugar candy) as "not good enough", one works within its constraints. Nouvelle AI|behavior-based AI In Artificial intelligence and Cognitive science, the term situated refers to an agent which is Embedded in Transcending them and learning to be satisfied with them, is thus another sort of value, perhaps called satisfaction, or in Buddhism enlightenment. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices

Values and the people that hold them seem necessarily subordinate to the ecosystem. If this is so, then what kind of being could validly apply the word "good" to an ecosystem as a whole? Who would have the power to assess and judge an ecosystem as good or bad? By what criteria? And by what criteria would ecosystems be modified, especially larger ones such as the atmosphere (climate change) or oceans (extinction) or forests (deforestation)? For discussion see debates on monoculture and permaculture. An atmosphere (from Greek ατμός - atmos, " Vapor " + σφαίρα - sphaira, " Sphere " Climate change is any long-term significant change in the “average weather” that a given region experiences An ocean (from Greek, ''Okeanos'' (Oceanus) is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the Hydrosphere. In Biology and Ecology, extinction is the cessation of existence of a Species or group of taxa. A forest is an area with a high density of Trees There are many definitions of a forest based on various criteria Deforestation is the conversion of Forested areas to non-forest land for use such as Arable land, Pasture, urban use logged area or wasteland Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area The word permaculture, coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren during the 1970s is a Portmanteau of perma nent agri'

"Remaining on Earth" as the most basic value. While green ethicists have been most forthright about it, and have developed theories of Gaia philosophy, biophilia, bioregionalism that reflect it, the questions are now universally recognized as central in determining value, e. Green politics is a Political ideology which places a high importance on ecological and environmental goals and on achieving these goals through broad-based List of ethicists including religious or political figures recognized by those outside their tradition as having made major contributions to ideas about Ethics, or raised major Gaia philosophy (named after Gaia, Greek Goddess of the Earth) is a broadly inclusive term for related concepts that living organisms on The biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems Bioregionalism is a term used to describe a political cultural and environmental system based on naturally-defined areas called bioregions or Ecoregions Bioregions are defined g. the economic "value of Earth" to humans as a whole, or the "value of life" that is neither whole-Earth nor human. In Green economics, value of Earth is the ultimate in Ecosystem valuation, and important to Value of life calculations The value of life (or price of life) is an Economic or Moral value assigned to Life in general or to specific living organisms Many have come to the conclusion that without assuming ecosystem continuation as a universal good, with attendant virtues like biodiversity and ecological wisdom it is impossible to justify such operational requirements as sustainability of human activity on Earth. Virtue ( Latin virtus; Greek) is moral Excellence. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting individual Biodiversity is the variation of Life forms within a given Ecosystem, Biome or for the entire Earth. The term ecological Wisdom, or Ecosophy, is a philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium Sustainability, in a general sense is the capacity to maintain a certain process or state indefinitely

One response is that humans are not necessarily confined to Earth, and could use it and move on. A counter-argument is that only a tiny fraction of humans could ever do this, and those would be self-selected by ability to do technological escalation on others (for instance, the ability to create large missiles on which to flee the planet and simultaneously threaten others who sought to prevent them). Technological escalation describes the fact that whenever two parties are in competition each side tends to employ continuing technological improvements to defeat the other Another counter-argument is that extraterrestrial life would encounter the fleeing humans and be forced to destroy them as a locust species. Extraterrestrial life is Life originating outside of the Earth. A third is that if there are no other worlds fit to support life (and thus no extraterrestrials competing with humans to occupy them) it is both futile to flee, and foolish to imagine that it would take less energy and skill to protect the Earth as a habitat, than it would take to construct some new habitat. A habitat (which is Latin for "it inhabits" is an Ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular Species.

Accordingly remaining on Earth, as a living being surrounded by a working ecosystem, is a fair statement of the most basic values and goodness to any being we are able to communicate with. A moral system without this axiom seems simply not actionable.

However, most religious systems acknowledge an afterlife and improving this is seen as an even more basic good. AfterLife is a film drama set in Scotland directed by Alison Peebles made in 2003 about an ambitious Scottish journalist forced to choose between In many other moral systems, also, remaining on Earth in a state that lacks honor or power over self is less desirable - consider seppuku in bushido, kamikazes or the role of suicide attacks in Jihadi rhetoric. Honor or Honour (see spelling differences) (the latter directly from the Latin word honos honoris) is the evaluation of a person's is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by Disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for Samurai. ( is a word of Japanese origin which in English usually refers to the Suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against This article is about suicide attacks for political and/or military reasons Jihadi is a Political neologism referring to an individual who participates in advancing Jihad. In all these systems, remaining on Earth is perhaps no higher than a third-place value.

Radical values environmentalism can be seen as either a very old or a very new view: that the only intrinsically good thing is a flourishing ecosystem; individuals and societies are merely instrumentally valuable, good only as means to having a flourishing ecosystem. The Gaia philosophy is the most detailed expression of this overall thought but it strongly influenced Deep Ecology and the modern Green Parties. Gaia philosophy (named after Gaia, Greek Goddess of the Earth) is a broadly inclusive term for related concepts that living organisms on Deep ecology is a recent branch of ecological Philosophy ( Ecosophy) that considers Humankind an integral part of its environment. A Green party' or ecologist party is a formally organized Political party based on the principles of Green politics.

It is often claimed that aboriginal peoples never lost this sort of view - anthropological linguistics studies links between their languages and the ecosystems in which they lived and which gave rise to their knowledge distinctions. The term Indigenous Peoples or autochthonous peoples can be used to describe any Ethnic group who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest historical Anthropological linguistics is the study of the relations between language and culture and the relations between human biology cognition and language Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding Very often, environmental cognition and moral cognition were not distinguished in these languages - offenses to nature were like those to other people, and Animism reinforced this by giving nature "personality" via myth. Animism (from Latin anima ( Soul, Life) commonly refers to a religious belief that Souls or Spirits exist in Animals The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" Anthropological theories of value explore these questions. Anthropological theories of value attempt to expand on the traditional theories of value used by economists or ethicists.

Most people in the world reject older situated ethics and localized religious views. Situated ethics, often confused with Situational ethics, is a view of Applied ethics in which abstract standards from a culture or theory are considered to be far However small-community-based and ecology-centric views have gained some popularity in recent years. In part, this has been attributed to the desire for ethical certainties. Such a deeply-rooted definition of goodness would be valuable because it might allow one to construct a good life or society by reliable processes of deduction, elaboration or prioritisation. Ones that relied only on local referents one could verify for oneself, creating more certainty and therefore less investment in protection, hedging and insuring against consequences of loss of the value.

History and novelty

An event is often seen as being of value simply because of its novelty in fashion and art. By contrast, cultural history and other antiques are sometimes seen as of value in and of themselves due to their age. Philosopher-historians Will and Ariel Durant spoke as much with the quote, "As the sanity of the individual lies in the continuity of his memories, so the sanity of the group lies in the continuity of its traditions; in either case a break in the chain invites a neurotic reaction" (The Lessons of History, 72).

Assessment of the value of old or historical artifacts takes into consideration, especially but not exclusively: the value placed on having a detailed knowledge of the past, the desire to have tangible ties to ancestral history, and/or the increased market value scarce items traditionally hold.

Creativity and innovation and invention are sometimes upheld as fundamentally good especially in Western industrial society - all imply newness, and even opportunity to profit from novelty. Creativity is a mental process involving the generation of new Ideas or Concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts The term innovation means a new way of doing something It may refer to incremental radical and revolutionary changes in thinking products processes or organisations An invention is a new form composition of matter device or Process. Bertrand Russell was notably pessimistic about creativity and thought that knowledge expanding faster than wisdom necessarily was fatal. Bertrand Arthur William Russell 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970 was a British Philosopher, Historian Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding Wisdom is a concept of personal gaining of Knowledge, Understanding, Experience, discretion and intuitive understanding, along with a capacity

Anti-goodness theories

Choice of lesser goods theories

Sometimes more thorough attempts will also be made to describe the origin of evil and how it might tend to come into existence as well, and sometimes those attempts will fall under the category of describing as false various forms of goodness. Evil, in many cultures is used to describe acts or thoughts which are contrary to some particular religion Among some schools of thought, the idea is put forth that all evil comes from the excessive pursuit of goods of lesser value, at the expense of goods of greater value. For instance, greed derives from the pursuit of gain for one's self, generally a good thing, at the expense of others, generally a bad thing. Greed is the Selfish desire for or pursuit of Money, Wealth, power, Food, or other Possessions, especially when this denies Overeating may result from the exchange of momentary pleasure derived from the eating of food, for the greater good of long term health. In psychology similar processes might occur in the formation of various types of addictions. Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and The term " addiction " is used in many contexts to describe an obsession compulsion or excessive Physical dependence or psychological dependence such as No particular thing is thus considered to be intrinsically bad automatically, but rather evil will come from the pursuit of various goods in excess, to the expense of other more important ones, which are then neglected.

See also

• Axiology
• Common good
• Descriptive ethics
• Evil
• Inductive reasoning
• Meta-ethics
• Supreme good
• Sin
• Value theory

References

Sources

• Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. 1998. USA: Oxford University Press. (1177a15)
• Bentham, Jeremy. The Principles of Morals and Legislation. 1988. Prometheus Books.
• Dewey, John. Theory of Valuation. 1948. University of Chicago Press.
• Durant, Ariel and W. Durant. The Lessons of History. 1997. MJF Books. (p72)
• Garcia, John David. The Moral Society - A Rational Alternative to Death. 2005. Whitmore Publishing.
• Griffin, James. Well-Being: Its Meaning, Measurement and Moral Importance. 1986. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Hume, David. A Treastise of Human Nature. 2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Hurka, Thomas. Perfectionism. 1993. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Kant, Immanuel. Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals. 1996. Cambridge University Press. Third section, [446]-[447].
• Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. 1999. Belknap Press.

External links

• Recognising Good And Evil, by Philip Atkinson