What makes a good person?

Note: Café Philo is a way of meeting interesting, inquiring people who enjoy talking about life's big issues and conundrums in a convivial atmosphere, rather than a heavy-duty philosophy seminar. Read more about our approach here.

We all make judgments about character. We trust certain friends more than others, admire some people while feeling uneasy around others, and struggle with our own sense of whether we’re living well. But when we call someone a “good person,” what exactly do we mean?

Philosophical Frameworks
There are several competing philosophical approaches to answering this:

Virtue ethics focuses on character traits – courage, wisdom, compassion, integrity. Aristotle argued that virtue lies in finding the right balance and that becoming good requires practice and habituation.

Consequentialism, including Utilitarianism, judges goodness by outcomes: a good person maximizes wellbeing or minimizes suffering. Intentions matter less than results.

Deontological ethics emphasizes duties and principles: a good person acts from moral rules that could be universally applied (e.g., Kant’s famous Categorical Imperative), treating others as ends in themselves rather than mere means.

Care ethics prioritizes relationships and responsiveness to others’ needs, suggesting that goodness emerges from attentiveness and maintaining human connections.

These frameworks can create conflict. Is someone who follows rigid principles but lacks warmth truly good? Can good intentions excuse harmful outcomes?

Complicating Questions
Can you be a good person while committing bad acts? Does a lifetime of kindness erase a serious moral failing? How do we reconcile admiration for someone’s achievements with condemnation of their character–the problem of the “monstrous artist”? (For example, is it OK to enjoy the music of Michael Jackson after the Leaving Netherland revelations?)

Some possible questions for discussion

1. When you say someone is a “good person,” what are you usually pointing to?
2. Is there a difference between a “good person” and a “nice person”? If so, what?
3. Which philosophical framework resonates most with your intuitions? Where do they conflict with how you actually judge people?
4. Is being a good person primarily about what you do, what you intend, who you are, or how you make others feel?
5. Does “being a good person” require self-awareness and intentional effort, or can someone be good unreflectively?
6. How much does motivation matter? Is there a meaningful difference between someone who helps others because it feels good and someone who does so from duty, even when it’s difficult?
7. Think of someone you consider genuinely good. What specifically led to that judgment? Now think of someone widely admired whom you have reservations about–what’s missing?

Optional exercise
If you feel like it, jot down your own short definition of a “good person” before we meet – and see if it changes after our discussion.

Further resources
What Makes a Good Person – Elenchus Philosophy – An overview of the main philosophical traditions
What It Means to Be a Good Person and How to Recognise One – (Therapy Central) – A more psychological approach
What is Ethics? – Ethics Centre (4:55 min) – An introduction to the purpose and process of ethical thinking
What Is a Good Life? – Crash Course Philosophy (video ~9 mins) – A short overview of the related topic of the good life