Like being, also the good can be spoken of in many senses. We can call something good because we like its taste subjectively. We can call ‘good’ as well that which lies in the true interest of a person and of his or her true happiness.
But we may speak of good in a third sense as of something that is intrinsically good, which is lifted out of the neutral and opposed to evil by its own nature and existence. Within that urphenomenon which we call intrinsically good, there is a huge gradation. For example, the value of a human person is incomparably higher than the intrinsic value of a dog. When we ask for the supreme form of the good in the world, we could say: There can be no higher, intrinsic value-bearing good than the person. To say this implies that the concept of ‘person’ differs from that of ‘human person’.
But what inclines to say that the person possesses value in the supreme sense? Is it the ontological value that also the unconscious embryo possesses? Is it only the dignity of the awakened, self-conscious person? Is it only moral dignity? Or is it a goodness and dignity bestowed on persons by society or by God? Is there then a goodness of man greater than moral goodness?
It seems that the supreme form of the good we are looking for can only lie in moral goodness. At least, the supreme good must entail moral goodness. Correspondingly, moral evil is a more terrible evil than illness, hunger, pain, or death. Moral goodness is also good in a higher sense for the additional reason that it cannot be ‘abused’ like other talents. It also makes the person as such good; it touches his very being.
Moral goodness, when possessed by a person, is likewise the highest objective good for the person.
Socrates says that if the doing injustice is intrinsically a greater evil than suffering, it must also be a greater evil for the soul of man. Similarly, if moral rectitude is the highest intrinsic value a person can possess, it must also be the greatest good for man to be just and morally good.
The ‘”upreme form of the good” in man can only be seen in the light of a metaphysics of love and of being loved that goes beyond what can be acquired by us through our good will alone. And absolutely speaking, the supreme good can only be “that greater than which nothing can be conceived”, God. The paper ends in a short investigation of this absolute Good and the indispensable role moral goodness has in it.