I'm writing this because I don't know what makes a good person and I think I need more perspectives to garner a better idea.
Good people:
There are a few names that immediately spring to mind when you think of people who are considered as 'good people'. Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Mandela and an uncountable amount of other names I could mention.
Mother Teresa is someone that is considered a good person, I mean she has a Nobel piece prize and is a saint in the catholic church which are two of the biggest honors you can get for being good. Mother Teresa was a person just like anyone else so she must have made mistakes and done harmful things? You can't live a life without hurting a single person, purposeful or not.
Now Mother Teresa also has a lot of controversy surrounding her life and was criticized. for many reasons I will go into shortly, regularly by the media and independent journalists.
She was criticized for actually doing a lot more harm than help when treating sick people as the locations set up to care for patients were unsanitary, full of cross contamination, with a general lack of care for patients pain, along with having people with little to no medical knowledge making important medical decisions.
There is also lots of controversy surrounding large sums of money she raised, strong suspicions she was racist, relationships with corrupt individuals along with her stances on abortion and contraception which can directly tie her to the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic in parts of the world
Yet after all of this Mother Teresa is still remembered as a good person even though it seems she likely caused a lot more harm and suffering than she stopped. The other names I mentioned along with any other name I can think of all have some ties controversial practices.
Intention:
As these people are considered 'good' even through the 'bad' they did, are there stances as good people then down to the intentions of what they did? Is it because they set out with good intentions that they are remembered as good?
To me this seems strange as good intentions don't mean a lot if you are causing huge amounts of suffering, a terrorist may have good intentions of trying to raise awareness for the suffering and mistreatment of their people, but because of the terrorist act the intentions are null.
Direct impact:
If not intention is it then the direct or non direct impact that makes someone remember as good or bad, because a terrorist directly causes an untold amount of harm they are bad, they set out knowing they would cause harm.
As someone like Mother Teresa didn't actually give people HIV/AIDS or cause peoples suffering she is good? Just because her harm was not caused as directly, she did not force people infected to spread disease rather she just removed the protection against it.
Then if that was the case and direct involvement means you are bad and indirect, however loosely indirect, means the issue can be looked over. Too me that's like saying If I organize a robbery but make sure I'm the driver I should not be held accountable as I did not break anything or steal anything.
Mother Theresa was just a bit 'dim' (or just plain old fashioned) - A relative of mine knew her/worked with her - and said she was a really gentle person who only wanted to do nice things..but not too bright.
(she was old at that time)
Not true. Your is the plan to the initiation of force...(as well as abetting the initiators of force to make good from their actions of force..Complicit by action).
Mandela had no excuses - highly intelligent and as such the has to take responsibility for his actions, more than just at a 'local' level...
With higher levels of intelligence, and good intent, comes great responsibility.
If 'do no harm' doesn't run through the ethos of real life actions - at all levels - motives have to be questioned.
If 'the means justifies the end', then intellectual gymnastics takes precedent of objective moral truths - killing for example. (not incl. in self defense)
My initial take on it...
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Some interesting points you raise, I'm not sure if lack of intelligence or knowledge should be seen any differently as someone knowingly doing something bad. Maybe it makes things understandable but it doesn't take away from what happened. Though I also feel if you have know knowledge of something being bad then it is unfair to punish them the same.
I think that comes down to being dependent on situation and I think in the example of Mother Teresa she full well knew the consequences of people not using contraceptives and how that can spread disease, so she should be held accountable.
I also find it difficult to say whether 'the means justifies the end' as again in some situations it will some it won't. It really is a difficult question of morality, good and bad are different from person to person. Also causing harm is something that can not be avoided someone will always be harmed to some extend in making change.
I don't like to think of people as good or bad because there is just too many arguments for and against, I prefer to look at it as people are people with individual motives, good or bad matters as much as we each make it.
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I suppose it depends on how one defines "good person." I can't say if the thing is actually definable at all. I don't think that any kind of objective morality exists so, for me, a "good person" is good to an individual. I think some people are "good" because they fit into my world view. Others do the same but none of us can say that our "good people" are more good for any real reason. That is my view, anyway.
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Couldn't have said it better, a 'good person' is not a tangible thing someone may be a good person in my view but that is just my view, it's completely open to interpretation. One persons view doesn't change or take away from another.
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Truth.
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I have had similar conversations regarding what “good” and “evil” are and find that there is often an overlooked and or misunderstood view of something that is as intangible and dualistic as existence itself. I find that "good" and "evil" are existential constructs/outcomes of that which is and is not. The action and or even intention of something are but outcomes of an expression understood by that which is affected by said expression.
Your exploration of this construct being an attempt at understanding is quite expressive. I too am interested in how a “good” act can be seen as “evil” all the same dependent on view… and this is why I can not pin “good” and evil” to the whole. “good” and Evil” are then but feelings felt by existence by way of reflection- one beings actions onto another and right back again.
As you stated in your observations, an act can be creating “good,” while simultaneously creating equal or far greater “evil.” This is why it is so important to have communication… notice, I didn’t say “good” communication. That which you feel may be right/good as someone is stating something you don’t believe will be pushed away as bad/evil only because one may see it in such a way. Allowing for one to express ones self and not rejecting such expression allows for common ground to be found. A dualistic balance of what “I” am and what “I” am not is existence itself. We can not create or destroy constructs such as “good” or “Evil,” we can but attempt to understand that which is not ourselves as a singularity. Without that which is not ourselves, we would cease to exist.
To those that wish to attempt “good”…I have an option for you. It has been said in many ways, and I am hearing/seeing it occur more and more as people realize the dualistic nature of intention. The construct of creation rather than destructive intention. The action of building up rather than breaking down. Finding common ground rather than starting over moves the whole toward “good.” One moving with such intention tends to that which is existence itself… feeding the growth of the whole and ones personal growth encompassed within the whole. Two halves of that which is, forming that which will be.
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I think an action is only as good as its outcome, the intention of an act should not be overlooked as it does hold some importance, mostly toward how you look at the person doing said 'good' or 'bad' act, though there are many areas to approach this problem.
If we look at the language in itself, what the words actually mean, we will come to one sort of answer. Then if we look at the morality and perspective of what good and bad are we come to another sort of answer.
To then get the most accurate answer we would have to workout how those outcomes can be brought together. And each persons opinion will still vary.
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I would first eliminate bad people and whatever is left is a good person ;-) easy.
or the one who gives you the money when needed rather than promising you to do so
and of course it is all relevant to what you consider being good v bad. nothing is absolute.
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Thats the thing, as it is relative someone who is bad to you could be a hero to others .
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