What does it mean to say that something is good? (Venue A: Caffè Nero)

THE VENUE: Caffè Nero

Rain is currently forecast for Sunday (again) but things may change. So, the default is to meet indoors but please look out for updates before you leave home.

When we meet inside, we run the same event in two locations: Caffè Nero and Starbucks, so as to provide capacity for as many people who would like to attend. Thus, there will be two events published, and you can choose which one to attend. Please don't sign up for both. This event is for the Nero location.

We meet upstairs at Caffè Nero. An organiser will be present from 10.45. We are not charged for use of the space so it would be good if everyone bought at least one drink.

An attendee limit has been set so as not to overwhelm the venue.

Etiquette
Our discussions are friendly and open. We are a discussion group, not a for-and-against debating society. But it helps if we try to stay on topic. And we should not talk over others, interrupt them, or try to dominate the conversation.

There is often a waiting list for places, so please cancel your attendance as soon as possible if you subsequently find you can't come.

WhatsApp groups
We have two WhatsApp groups. One is to notify events, including extra events such as meeting for a meal or a drink during the week which we don't normally put on the Meetup site. The other is for open discussion of whatever topics occur to people. If you would like to join either or both groups, please send a note of the phone number you would like to use to Richard Baron on: website.audible238@passmail.net. (This is an alias that can be discarded if it attracts spam, hence the odd words.)

THE TOPIC: What does it mean to say that something is good?

This week's topic has been prepared by Duncan.

By way of an introduction, here is the summary from a recent article I read:

This inquiry is simple yet perplexing. It is simple because we use “good” liberally and consciously. We usually know what we mean when we say, “You’re a good person,” “He’s a good worker,” and “This is a good knife.”

But it is perplexing because when we start thinking about what we mean by saying these things, we start realizing that we don’t actually mean what we think we mean to say. Worse, we have no idea what we actually mean.

Here is a link to the article. It's not very long but it may require signing up to read it: https://theapeiron.co.uk/what-is-goodness-923ca5b61ef

To avoid this, I have copied the text into a Google doc here.

So, what is goodness?

Is goodness a quality or property of things, like colour, size or location ?

It seems reasonably straightforward for everyday objects. A good knife is sharp, a good clock is reliably accurate, a good owl can rotate is head through 180 degrees. But it's a lot less obvious when it comes to us and our actions.

Is it related to purpose ? We know what knives and clocks are for, and we know how to judge their quality. But what are humans for and what makes a good one ?

For something to be good, does it have to be good for someone? When I say a book is good, I seem to be making an evaluative judgement and may actually be recommending you to read it. It was good for me; it may be good for you too.

Is giving to charity good ? Most people would say so, but is it good in itself or merely good for the recipients - and possibly for the giver too ? Or is it just an example of what good humans do ?

For a final perspective, using a question posed to Cambridge undergrads in part 1A of the Philosophy tripos (the end of first year exam) in 2009:

How similar are goodness and yellowness? (https://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/system/files/documents/1a-paper-02-2009.pdf)