JeffreyLH1 said:

Who does one’s goodness belongs to?

JohnPhilipGreen said:

Me? As the one responsible for my actions, it belongs to me, no?

Peter Blomert said:

Forgive my limited competency in the English language, but what means “belongs” in this context?

hcraig said in response to:

I suppose one’s stance on this depends on their stance on free will vs. determinism.

If, you believe, our actions come from a pre-determined plan by some higher being, all of our successes (as well as our failures) would come from that.

or

If, you believe, our actions come from our the choices we make, then our goodness (or lack there of) is a consequence of the choices we make. Then again, one could argue that the choices we make today are the consequences of choices we made long ago, which were a result of the choices our parents made and so on and so forth – so our “goodness” really wouldn’t belong to us anyways.

Then again, I’m not sure I’ve interpreted the question the way Jeffrey was hoping it would be. Jeffrey, do you think you could clarify your original statement for us?

JeffreyLH1 said:

To John,

Yes you are responsible for your actions and this is how you realize your goodness.

Now, think about the idea of your goodness within the context of how your actions are or not beneficial to others. If your actions do not produce benefit for others then your goodness is not being realized.

In this sense, one’s goodness, can only be realized as a benefit to others.

Let’s continue the dialog. This is the first of the four questions i include in The Inherent Goodness Flow Test.

My idea was just to test this system, which I find very unique and powerful for unleashing our collective intelligence.

Thanks for participating

JeffreyLH1 said in response to:

To John,

Yes you are responsible for your actions and this is how you realize your goodness.

Now, think about the idea of your goodness within the context of how your actions are or not beneficial to others. If your actions do not produce benefit for others then your goodness is not being realized.

In this sense, one’s goodness, can only be realized as a benefit to others.

Let’s continue the dialog. This is the first of the four questions i include in The Inherent Goodness Flow Test.

My idea was just to test this system, which I find very unique and powerful for unleashing our collective intelligence.

Thanks for participating

JeffreyLH1 said in response to:

Good thinking,

The question is pose in this way for the purpose of triggering this line of though you are going for in here.

The intent is to begin a dialog where we will hopefully end up recognizing our position and role within the emergence of “universal goodness” (or evolutionary novelty)

The framework I will present will show there is a qualitative causal continuum that transcends and includes all natural action. When we look into other questions I trust you will see a new way to solve the seeming paradox between free will and determinism. In anticipation, I now see how and why these both exist.

JeffreyLH1 said in response to:

Good question, (Interpret “belongs” as value-realizer)

The reason why I posted this question is this way is to recognize that “goodness” in the same way that meaning and value is context dependent.

The idea is the one’s attributes can or not be considered one’s goodness, if and only if, such attributes produce benefits for yourself and/or for others.

Now the extension of this is to think how much goodness one can realize only for one self vs how much goodness one can realize for one self plus others. Then, the point is, one’s greatest goodness is realize as a benefit to the collective “Us” that transcends and includes the individual “I”

nelliemuller said in response to:

I view goodness as an attribute I may place on others or myself. I believe it belongs to those who think they possess it.

As an EFL teacher I couldn’t help but notice the typo in the question. The question should read: Who(m) does goodness belong to? My EFL students don’t make typos, they make errors due to second language interference.

mcaers said in response to:

A cab driver once told me that we pay in this life what our ancestors did in a previous life including our parents. Here is the story…

When I got in the cab he asked me how I was. I was having a particularly bad day and told him so and then on further thought added that it had been a particularly hard year. His response surprised me. He said that I was paying for the sins of my parents and ancestors and that things would not turn around for me until my debt (and by extension the debt of my ancestors was paid). He said this debt was created by their bad deeds or lack of “goodness”.

csrd said:

Going to the bottom of this discussion,( literally, “The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.”) a lot of ideas are gathered here. Interesting.

’ Goodness ’, the expression can be used in different contexts to convey a variety of meanings and accordingly the term may take the place of an adjective, a noun, and an adverb. Some words like action has four forms – act, active, actively and acting ( to make it clear).

Now, when you say “inherent goodness”, “universal goodness”, “greatest goodness”, “transcending goodness”, all these mean the Goodness which is unopposed to badness and hatredness on the one hand and on the other It is identical with (it has to be so) the Infinite Consciousness which accomodates everything within itself without seeking or taking any other support.

Further, at the cosmic level Goodness is the Infinite Consciousness. At the individual response level of thought it is good quality of the heart; at the speech level it is true, honest, pleasing and helpful; at the level of action it is excellence, humane, unselfish, in harmony with the things and beings around, leading towards the recognition of the Ultimate Goodness of one and all.

madhav singh said:

DON’T PLAY WORD GAMES. YOU ARE TRYING TOO HARD.