What is Good? Essay

What does it mean to be a good person? Being good has many meanings. It can be to contribute to help someone or simply to be nice to that person. A good person is most likely respected by people around them.

We’ve had a lot of discussion about ethics, values and morals this week and have drawn some lines between the meaning of each that applies to our personal and professional lives. Our values help guide us in our understanding of right and wrong, basically what we believe to be acceptable action in any situation we’re presented with. Morals are types of values that deal more with good and bad, the foundation for our behavior and decisions (The Definition of Morality, 2014). Ethics use shared morals and values in a system of accepted rules that a specific group of people agree to abide by. For example, most physicians agree to abide by the Code of Medical Ethics established by the American Medical Association since it is considered to be the most comprehensive code available (AMA's Code of Ethics, 2015).

If one was to ask the question, “What do ethics mean to you?” These responses would be likely to follow. “Ethics is what my feelings tell me is right or wrong.” “Ethics have to do with my religious beliefs.” “Being ethical means following the laws.” Those replies would be expected. Many do relate ethics with their feelings, but it is not a matter of following feelings. In fact, we will often times stray from living ethically if we were guided by our feelings. Although religions urge high ethical standards, if ethics were limited to religion, ethics would only apply to religious people. Following the law is not the same as being ethical. Ethical standards may be incorporated in the law, but laws, won’t always conform to

First, it is important to define ethics and how its components play an extensive role in our society. The term ethics is defined as “Moral principles that govern a person 's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.” (Oxford); ethical decisions are the ones that per se determine whether or not murder is wrong. Likewise, ethics consists of different ramifications and perspectives from many philosophers. Moreover,

Ethics are statements written that mirrors the principles of society it reflects society’s views of what is right or humanitarian. However, morals are not written and are codes setting out what is thought to be good enough or offensive behaviour.

According to the current definition from Webster, good is defined as morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious; where as evil is defined as morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked. One could

When it comes to ethics, there is often a connection between morals and social behavior. Depending on the person, these aspects of ethics can really affect the side that somebody will take in a situation. There are different circumstances for everything, and different situations can change the way that certain people will react to them. In real life, an example of this would be whether or not somebody feels compelled to help a homeless person and the reasoning behind the decision.

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, ethics is defined as “moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behavior.” Therefore, in an ideal world, ethics should play the ultimate role when making a decision. If ethics are the principles which guides one’s behavior then, ideally, all decisions should be made entirely based on ethics. Unfortunately, such is not always the case.

“Great individuals have great ethics and great values.” Ethics and morality can be used interchangeably as they sound as if they mean the same although there is a wide distinction between them. “Strictly speaking, morality is used to refer to what we would call moral standards and moral conduct while ethics is used to refer to the formal study of those standards and conduct. For this reason, the study of ethics is also often called moral philosophy." (Gordana D 2007)

If you asked a random person on the street “what is a good person?” or “what is the good life?” you would likely receive a different answer from everyone. These answers would be different because everyone has their own ideas and opinions of what the answers should be. For many, a good person is someone who lives a good life, is a Christian, or someone who helps other individuals. For some, a good person might be someone who puts others first and someone who is reliable. The same applies to the answers you would receive from “what is the good life?” Just like everyone had different opinions on what a good person is, they will also have different opinions on what the good life is. You might get answers ranging from spending time with one’s family to having a lot of money. These answers vary depending on the individuals values and world view. For some individuals this desire for money can cause them to act on it, driving them to steal in order to gain happiness. Bronk supports this idea by stating, “Our answers guide our actions, influence our decisions, and inspire our dreams” (2008, p.713). This paper will discuss how philosophers believe everyone should live and what kind of people we should be, what a good person is, what the good life is, and what the relationship between goodness and human reality is.

What does it mean to be a good person? How can one respect oneself without hurting others? Are we able to judge whether a decision is wrong or right? Do we really know what love is? ... Questions like these have always existed, but what happens when an author tries to comprehend the complexity of being ‘good people’? Is it possible to write about an issue like this? In David Foster Wallace’s short story “Good People” from 2007 we experience an attempt to do so.

Being good could mean being a good citizen that follows the laws. It also means avoiding getting fines and committing crimes that lead some to end up in prison or jail. This means being a stand-up citizen or a role model to other citizens so that they could also act in a civilized manner. They follow all the rules and regulations of the local, state, and federal government. Not speeding and getting a parking ticket, reporting any crimes, and doing community service are one of the many ways a citizen can be a good. Being a good person could also mean that being a Samaritan. Examples of being a

Morals are the intrinsic beliefs developed from the value systems of how we 'should' behave in any given situation. Ethics, on the other hand, are how we behave in the face of difficult situations (Bottorff, 2005).

In today’s continuous changing world, the one thing that remains constant for most of us is our personal value system of beliefs, known as ethics. Ethics can also be referred to as morals. Therefore, ethics are those morals that reflect and indicate issues that concern behaviors that are right or wrong and the good and bad habits of individual character. This important standard of beliefs can in most cases create the difference in attitudes from others both

To answer this question, we must first understand what both ethics and morality are. As ethics is defined as the philosophical study of morality, those who study religion get their moral precepts from what they believe God says should be done. This perspective is not at all unexpected, because all religions apply a perspective on morality. Morality is defined as beliefs concerning right and wrong, good and bad- beliefs that can include judgements, values, rules, principles, and theories. Morals are what help us guide our actions, define our values, and give us reason for being the person that we are.