• Andrew4Handel
    2.5k
    If so then on what grounds?
  • T Clark
    13.9k


    Definitely not good. Not bad. Just a regular person. I do know several people I consider good though.
  • Agustino
    11.2k
    Nope.Lone Wolf

    Definitely not good.T Clark

    No.Thorongil

    Why not you bad people? :P
  • _db
    3.6k
    No, but I'm trying my best.

    ...just kidding, I could do a lot better.
  • T Clark
    13.9k
    Why not you bad people?Agustino

    As I said, I'm not bad, I'm just not especially good. Why would you expect me to be? Would you trust anyone who said they are good?
  • BlueBanana
    873
    Not as good as I once was.
  • Agustino
    11.2k
    Would you trust anyone who said they are good?T Clark
    Oh, so you just said that to get me to trust you? X-) ... well, it didn't work >:O
  • T Clark
    13.9k
    Oh, so you just said that to get me to trust you?Agustino

    P1 - You can't trust people who say they're good.
    P2 - T Clark does not say he's good.
    Therefore you can trust T Clark

    Something's missing here.
  • Andrew4Handel
    2.5k
    I have done things that might make me considered a bad person..but then so have most people I know.
  • Agustino
    11.2k
    Something's missing here.T Clark
    Yeah, you can be untrustworthy for other reasons too. But you certainly did try to eliminate some of the reasons for being perceived as untrustworthy :P
  • unenlightened
    9.2k
    I am very good and trustworthy, as you all know. It would be disingenuous of me to pretend otherwise. Not perfect of course, but one of the best.
  • Sir2u
    3.5k
    Err, could you define good for us please. I am not sure. :-#
  • Hanover
    12.9k
    I'm a good person, and I suspect most here are as well. I never bought into the Christian view of us all being sinners or that humility demands we accept we are failed beings. I also don't buy into the liberal view that we're all guilty of some remote wrong committed just by our existence. As long as you're out trying to do your best, you're good in my book, even if you comparatively suck.
  • Akanthinos
    1k
    Do you consider yourself a Good person?

    Yes. I have never cheated on a gf or sent anyone a d!ck pic.
  • TimeLine
    2.7k
    This is a self-defeating question; people, particularly those from dogmatic positions, often assume that there are selfish qualities in loving yourself and so believe that conversely there is moral superiority or virtue in loving only others at the expense of yourself; not doing this makes one 'bad' to others, but this is not true. Moral consciousness or being good is the capacity to give love and to give this to all people, a type of brotherly love without prejudice. This includes yourself.

    Having a love for yourself is not synonymous with being selfish, that it is ok to say that you respect who you are or are trying to be a better person. This sacrificial giving up yourself for some greater 'good' that implies some sort of evil to independence or free thinking is ideological. Why would the golden rule imply LOVE others as you would your SELF. It is to love all human beings and not including yourself in this formula is to imply some non-human quality to your being, as though you stand outside of the world around you. If you become a part of the world, then you are bad. Those who are incapable of loving others are incapable of loving themselves and so most people will say either yes or no to this question because their understanding of good is parallel to social constructs of good and evil (and thus flawed).

    Should the question be whether or not a person is good to themselves?
  • Hanover
    12.9k
    Having a love for yourself is not synonymous with being selfish, that it is ok to say that you respect who you are or are trying to be a better person.TimeLine

    This is consistent with The Golden Rule, to love thy neighbor as thyself, which requires first self love, and second offering to others a love equal to that. If you don't love youself, your neighbor should receive that same disregard if you love him as yourself. Deriving pleasure from pure self sacrifice is the definition of masochism.
  • Hanover
    12.9k
    "Now that I've seen the penis you have in store for me, I'd love to go out with you," said no girl ever.
  • Andrew4Handel
    2.5k
    What is Good?JustSomeGuy

    That is the question.

    I thought if people had moral concepts maybe they could identify them in themselves.

    I am not sure what is good. Or whether I am being good. Or whether other people are. I don't know if morality is being enacted in society
  • JustSomeGuy
    306

    Well the first question to ask would be: do you believe in objective morality?
  • Noble Dust
    8k
    I don't consider myself a good person, no, but I also believe I'm gooder than I know or realize.
  • Andrew4Handel
    2.5k
    Well the first question to ask would be: do you believe in objective morality?JustSomeGuy

    I would consider myself a moral nihilist.
    I can't say that I can guarantee that any behaviour is moral or what that might mean.

    I am interested in how other people identify moral attributes though.
  • unenlightened
    9.2k
    Well I didn't like to say it myself, thanks for noticing.
  • Ying
    397
    Do you consider yourself a Good person?Andrew4Handel

    Neither good nor it's supposed opposite. Those concepts are meaningless to me in regards to self evaluation. By what measure do you judge someone or yourself to be good/bad, anyway? And by what mean is that measure justified? And what means justify that measure? Ad infinitum (Regress problem).
  • celebritydiscodave
    79


    One should love oneself, but as is the case for friendship there are various forms of love, self love being the form to be avoided. One should only love one`s neighbor as oneself taking it that one has any respect at all for oneself. By the perception of whom can we be considered good or bad/ I think this is the wrong approach to it however. I`d define a good person as one that prioritizes the putting of other`s needs before their own. How good or bad they may be at doing this should be considered secondary to this assessment, in my opinion. In my view then effort is the primary consideration.
  • T Clark
    13.9k
    Moral consciousness or being good is the capacity to give love and to give this to all people, a type of brotherly love without prejudice.TimeLine

    I'm trying to decide whether I should get any further involved in this discussion. Calling someone "good" has a specific meaning to me, but I'm not interested in getting in a battle of conflicting definitions. I'll at least lay out how I think about it.

    There are just a few people in my life I consider good. They are strong, compassionate, and open-hearted. They do what they do without drawing attention to themselves. Generally, I don't think they even notice. They have integrity - what they do grows out of who they are at a deep level. I always get the feeling they couldn't act differently if they tried.

    As for the rest of us, we're fine. Not good, not bad. Human. I like people - almost everyone. I really don't dislike anyone, although there are people I don't want to hang around with. I love lots of people - most of them normal, fine, but not good in the sense I'm talking about.

    Do I love myself? I like myself. It doesn't bother me that I'm not good. It doesn't stop me from trying to be a good friend or show kindness and generosity. I try to be a person of good will - I want others to be happy. But calling myself good would cheapen the word for me.
  • charleton
    1.2k
    Depends whose asking.
    But as Socrates says, no one knowingly decides to be a bad person. Even Hitler justified his actions as doing the right thing, for what he believed to be true, and decent.
  • celebritydiscodave
    79


    Do you mean this, that awareness of one`s being good is to be discovered in one`s capacity for love? You complicate well beyond making any sense. Do you do this to sound like an authority? So likely only Jesus of everyone ever born, according to both you and the scriptures,, can be justified in considering themselves good. It is hard enough to think of everybody, and all the cold blooded killers in the world, even without trying to love everybody. In any event mere mortals have to spend time with a person to know whether they love them or not. Remember, the love on its own is but emotion, not a form of meaningful/actual love. One does not emotion a person, they feel the love emotion as consequence to the presence of a person,that`s all. Overly emotional people may not be any more likely to be good people, and the love emotion can be the nearest thing to hate..
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