[online] What is goodness when nobody's watching?

Learn more about Premise.
We offer guided conversations about life's big questions.

🟡 Space is limited, register today!
Please register directly with Premise here:
https://www.premiseinstitute.com/event-details/what-is-goodness-when-no-one-is-watching-3

It helps us keep things organized, since participants join from multiple places.

👉 Use the code `spokanemeetup` if you are unable to pay. The session will be no cost. All registration fees go directly to expanding Premise to communities nationwide.

Date & Time:
Jan 17, 2026, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST
Zoom link shared after registration

Texts:
We will email you the readings when you register.

• Peter Singer, “The Solution to World Poverty”
• Flannery O’Connor, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”

⏱️ Preparation: Less than 1.5 hours (reading takes < 1.5 hours)

Session Description:
What is goodness when no one is watching?
We live in an age of public virtue—every donation documented, every good deed posted, every moral stance proclaimed. But what happens to our ethics in true privacy? When stripped of audience, recognition, and even the possibility of discovery, what remains of our goodness?
In this session, we’ll explore authentic morality and the performance of virtue through two texts that clash in illuminating ways.

Singer’s utilitarian argument demands we save drowning children and dying strangers alike, regardless of who’s watching. But does his moral mathematics hold up in true privacy?

O’Connor’s short story follows a drifter who performs elaborate kindnesses while harboring cruel intentions, revealing how goodness can become theater when someone—anyone—is watching.

Together, these readings create powerful friction: Singer’s confidence in rational moral duty meets O’Connor’s devastating portrait of human self-deception. They raise a central question: Is private virtue a philosophical ideal, or a psychological impossibility?

In this session, we will ask

• What makes an action genuinely good: intention, outcome, or something else?
• Do we act differently when no one will ever know what we chose? Why?
• Is morality inherently social, or can it exist without witness?
• When does “being good” become performance rather than virtue?

What is Premise Like?
Join us in a welcoming, guided conversation space that invites people from all walks of life to think in public together with curiosity, openness, and respect. You do not need academic credentials or philosophical background. All you need is a willingness to read thoughtfully and reflect honestly.

We hope you’ll leave the session with sharper questions about virtue and responsibility—and a deeper sense of what goodness looks like when no one is watching.