But though each of these
represents a natural desire, they cannot all be counted equally good.
They must be tried by some standard other than themselves. For desires
are not detachable facts. Each is significant only as a piece of a
life. In connection with that life it must be judged. And when we ask
if any desire is good or bad, we really inquire how far it may play a
part in company with other desires in making up a harmonious
existence. By its organic quality, accordingly, we must ultimately
determine the goodness of whatever we desire. If it is organic, it
certainly will satisfy desire. But we cannot reverse this statement
and assert that whatever satisfies desire will be organically good. My
own mode of statement is, therefore, clearer and more adequate than
the one here examined, because it brings out fully important
considerations which in this are only implied. Whatever contributes to
the solidity and wealth of an organism is, from the point of view of
that organism, good.
VI
A second inadequate definition of goodness is that it is adaptation to
environment. This is a far more important conception than the
preceding; but again, while not untrue, is still, in my judgment,
partial and ambiguous. When its meaning is made clear and exact, it
seems to coincide with my own; for it points out that nothing can be
separately good, but becomes so through fulfillment of relations.
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