Greatest good

The highest good or goal (Latin summum bonum , Greek τὸ ἀγαθόν) is that good to which unconditional value is attached. Therefore, in philosophical ethics it is also seen as the ultimate purpose of moral action, as the highest action-guiding value and the highest goal.

“The highest good, on the other hand, is an apparent one, if the supposedly unconditional value is only conditional, whereas it is true, if it is really unconditional. The former is the case with the useful of the utilitarians and the sensual pleasure of the eudaemonists, this with the beautiful of the idealists (aesthetes) and the good of the moralists (ethicists). The beautiful in general and the good as willfully beautiful are related to one another; the former forms the broader, the latter the narrower concept, since although the good is always beautiful, not everything beautiful has to be good. The realization of the beautiful is art, that of the good is morality; the former is realized in the work of art, the latter in the character. The effect of art is pleasure, morality is bliss; Consequence of artistic creation bliss for the artist, moral action for the virtuous self-satisfaction. "(Meyers Konversationslexikon)

Greek philosophy

Aristotle speaks of the highest good as a principle by which the norms of human action are to be justified. He sees it realized in the blissful life ( Nicomachean ethics ). With this view he is considered to be the founder of eudaemonism .
Plato : “Life is not the greatest good, but the good life. Living 'well' means 'noble and just'. ”See the doctrine of ideas and especially the idea of the good .
Democritus called the Wohlgemutheit (Euthymia) as the highest good, see euthymia .
Epicurus sees the highest goal of human existence in serene pleasure (hedoné or voluptas), see hedonism .

Roman philosophy

Marcus Tullius Cicero : About the highest good and the highest evil. A philosophical treatise in five books (lat. De finibus bonorum et malorum libri )
Seneca : “The highest good is the harmony of the soul with itself.” - De vita beata , VIII, 6
Marc Aurel : For him, “autarkeia”, self-sufficiency , is the greatest good.

ethics

Ethics as a philosophical subject reflects three structural elements of action:

the offense of an act (e.g. civil war against tyrants),
the consequences of actions (weighing of interests theory): whether or under what conditions the bad consequences of an action are to be accepted so that a good purpose of action can be fulfilled at all ("the theory of weighing interests is the core of every ethics") and
the highest good (highest goal / purpose) of actions, which normalizes the very first possible good purposes for action (makes them appear good), since “every comprehensive weighing of goods requires that there [...] must be a good” that other “goods as The yardstick of the weighing can apply ”- because differently (without a highest good) weighing of goods cannot be presented in a generally understandable way, but are arbitrary or different (from the first indefinite link). Thus, besides the weighing of interests theory, the justification of the highest good is an essential task of ethics. “For the human person, the ethically highest good also means the goal in life that gives meaning to everything . It answers the identity-forming question about the meaning of life . ”In ethics z. B. discussed the following provisions of the highest good:
- that every person never uses an action as a means to an end that is not in the interests of the person (human endurance in itself, personal dignity or human dignity ) or
- the happiness of the greatest possible number or
- the development of life for all in the long run and as a whole.

Christian context

In the Christian context, the term highest good is usually a synonym for God or Jesus Christ and the sacramental and eternal communion with him, for example in the hymn God is my very high good by Johannes Olearius (1611-1684) or in the cantata Herr Jesus Christ, you highest good, BWV 113 by Johann Sebastian Bach . The natural theology argues that from the order of beings to being pure , so the absolute being , d. H. Let God close. Accordingly, this is also the highest good for all (created) beings.

For Thomas Aquinas the highest good is eternal happiness alone , which - in the life beyond - can be achieved through the direct contemplation of God. This shows the primacy of knowledge over will. On the other hand, Christian theology always turned against the notion, which was widespread in averroism , that intellectual activity was the highest good.

Kant

"The highest good in the ethical sense is therefore, according to Kant's correct remark, neither morality nor happiness in itself, but the union of both, the oneness of doing and rejoicing in the good, in the broader, aesthetic sense, however, neither artistic creation nor artistic enjoyment is separated, but the union of both, Oneness of creating and enjoying the beautiful. "(Meyers Konversationslexikon)

Kant and the deontological ethics dependent on Kant thus identify the “highest good” with virtue and duty . Kant recognizes bliss as the highest good when we strive for it for others. Morality alone is the standard for oneself.

Post-Kantian subjectivism

The subjectivist ethics, in particular the eudaemonism and utilitarianism secularized, the Summum bonum increasingly. If it is initially identified with the greatest happiness, then on the one hand basic ethical terms such as (decision) freedom, humanity or human rights, but also abstract individual values such as health, drinking water, quality of life, the environment, safety, public appreciation as "Highest good" seen or designated. Both many representatives of the philosophy of life and of nihilism tried to understand life as such as the highest good.

Non-European philosophy

In the non-European ancient philosophy, Laozi's book on the highest being and the highest good is worth mentioning.

literature

Er Li: Lao-tsze's book of the highest being and the highest good (Tao-tĕ-king). Tübingen 1910
Kenneth E. Kirk: The vision of God. The Christian doctrine of the Summum Bonum. The Bampton lectures for 1929. London 1931, reprinted by Harper & Row, New York 1966
Phil-Bae Park: The greatest good in Kant's critical philosophy. An investigation into the connection between critical ethics and metaphysics. Dissertation, Cologne 1999

Web links

Footnotes

^ Rupert Lay: Ethics for Managers. Econ Verlag 1989, p. 85.
↑ Peter Koslowski: Principles of the ethical economy. JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck) 1988, p. 170.
^ Rupert Lay: About the culture of the company. ECON Verlag 1992, p. 71.

[1] Rupert Lay: Ethics for Managers. Econ Verlag 1989, p. 85.

[2] Peter Koslowski: Principles of the ethical economy. JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck) 1988, p. 170.

[3] Rupert Lay: About the culture of the company. ECON Verlag 1992, p. 71.