A greater good is one more largely contributory to the organism as its
end.
A higher good is one more fully expressive of that end.
Probably, too, it will be found convenient to set down here a couple
of other definitions which will hereafter be explained and employed. A
good act is the expression of selfhood as service. By an ideal we mean
a mental picture of a better state of existence than we feel has
actually been reached.
REFERENCES ON MISCONCEPTIONS OF GOODNESS
Alexander's Moral Order and Progress, bk. iii. ch. i. Section 10.
Martineau's Types of Ethical Theory, vol. ii. bk. i. ch. i. Section 2.
Mackenzie's Manual of Ethics, ch. v. Section 13 & ch. vii. Section 2.
Janet's Theory of Morals, ch. iii.
Dewey's Outlines of Ethics, Section lxvii.
Spencer's Principles of Ethics, pt. i. ch. 3.
III
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS
I
In the preceding chapters I have examined only those features of
goodness which are common alike to persons and to things. Goodness was
there seen to be the expression of function in the construction of an
organism. That is, when we ask if any being, object, or quality is
good, we are really inquiring how organic it is, how much it
contributes of riches or solidity to some whole or other. There must,
then, be as many varieties of goodness as there are modes of
constructing organisms.
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