Good: 1a (1): something that is good b (1): something conforming to the moral order of the universe (2): praiseworthy character: GOODNESS (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th edition).
If I were to ask a random number of people, “Is it better to be good or bad?” What percentage do you think would respond with “good”? I think the vast majority would respond with “good”. There may be a few who’d respond with “bad” just to be counter-cultural or for other reasons. Are they serious? Probably not, but let’s assume they are. I think it’s safe to say they’d be in the extreme minority.
If you were to ask the members of a crime syndicate, “Are you a ‘good’ member of your organization?” Or, “Who in your organization is ‘bad’; who is not a ‘good’ representation of your organizations values?” What would they say? Aren’t these two questions especially interesting to consider?
Even a crime syndicate has a sense of good and bad, right and wrong. Although they live in a way which violates the law they nonetheless have an objective code of “ethics” which transcends the individual; to which the individual is expected to conform his or her subjective self.
Why’s this the case? How’s this possible? Why does it seem all of us are hardwired to want to conform to a sense of good which transcends ourselves? Why do we have a desire to be good and to do good? If there are conflicting views of what is “good”, is there one standard above them all by which the different views may be judged? Even the definition from Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary presumes there is in fact a standard of moral order to the universe. Why?