What is ‘good?”

Writers generally define ethics as the systematic study of right and wrong human actions. This definition captures much of what constitutes ethics, but a complete definition must go further. Ethics should also study and develop ways to promote and nourish the good. An objection often heard throughout any ethics course takes the form of the question, “Who is to say what is good?” Students may ask the question seriously or cynically, but the short answer is that everyone must have his or her say. The longer answer argues that you and I can improve our ability to understand the good and to see clearly that some things are objectively better than others. Everyone has the right to an opinion, but some opinions are better, meaning truer, than others.

Ethics books and courses often present arguments for opposing sides of controversial issues and invite the students or readers to debate the two sides. Another common approach offers a menu of theories and asks the reader to speculate on how advocates of each theory would deal with the issues.  The whole enterprise of ethics may appear to be an exercise in rhetoric similar to a debate topic in which a team argues the affirmative position in the morning and the negative in the afternoon. Some will say, “Like it or not, that‘s the way it is – there are no objective truths in ethics.”

Question: Is anything good in reality or is good a matter of subjective opinion? If there is an objective good, what is it? If there is no objective good, how do we know what actions are better?