What is good for us? What ought we do?
As social animals, humans seek ways to cooperate for the greater good. Properly socialized children develop a healthy conscience, giving them an internal sense of morality. Inevitably none of us are perfectly socialized. Our parents aren't perfect, and society is messy. So, there's a need to reflect upon the moral sense instilled in us and attempt to identify its proper and improper elements to put pressure on the improper elements to change, where by proper we mean serving the greater good (which includes what's good for oneself just the same as everyone else). When we do this, we've entered the domain of ethics.
Ethics applies at many levels. Each of us occupies many worlds, and each world has its own set of concerns. There's the world of our personal life, our family life, the world of our neighborhood, city, state or province, nation, broader culture, the world of our species (humanity), the world of all sentient beings, the world of life on planet Earth, and perhaps the world of all life in the universe (presuming there's more out there). In each world, all members are alike in some basic way, and all members share common concerns on the basis of that basic likeness. So, for each world, there will be a common good for all its members, and these goods vary slightly across worlds. The question thus often becomes—when addressing the common good—which common good? In which group do I have my primary membership? In which group ought I have my primary membership? By virtue of what should I consider myself a primary member of one group rather than another? Or is there a way to think of ourselves as members in a distributed group/world such that no one of them becomes primary but a complex set of concerns with ramifications in multiple worlds becomes primary? How would we identify that complex set of concerns, and to what extent will each of our complex sets of concerns overlap such that the question of a common good applies?
_related questions
• How ought things be for our community (at some level)?
• What will benefit everyone equally, going forward, regardless of circumstances and experiences? What will everyone find valuable?
• What are some things that everyone should do or abstain from doing (as a general rule), regardless of their particular circumstances and experiences?
• What are some ways we should become alike? In what ways is it good to grow together (become similar)?
• When taking into consideration the concerns of others, how far do we extend that consideration?
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