DEFINING THE UNDEFINABLE

Part 6

WHAT IS GOODNESS?

Goodness is a human quality solely invented to describe the most desirable and most positive attributes of the essence of being human, putting us above animals and making us distinct from all other earthly living organisms.

Human beings, or Homo sapiens as a species, are biologically mammals and part of the animal kingdom. Therefore, we have a basal animal nature which also governs much of our behaviour, especially those that are driven by physiological instincts of thirst, hunger and sex; psychological instincts of survival, self-defence and territory; more complex instincts like maternal and social instincts; and others that manifest as self-centred and dominant behaviours. On the other hand, moral and ethical codes are artificial human constructs that we impose on ourselves because our higher mental functions trigger a need for validation of our special status in the living world. That’s how the concept of goodness is invented as a foundation for our “human” nature, which is distinguished from our animal nature.

So, the perennial debate as to whether our human nature is good or evil remains unresolved because of a widespread misunderstanding of the nature of “human nature” itself. In reality, “human nature” is, by definition, “good” because that is how we as humans conceived ourselves to be. The opposite of goodness, whether we call it badness or evil, is the label that we should rightfully put on other behaviours including those governed by our animal nature. Thus, in each of us, we have both a human and a animal nature, the proportion of which varies from individual to individual which can evolve to a more predominant human nature or devolve to a more pronounced animal nature over time even in the same individual.

There is no need for a God or the Devil (or Satan) to be the champions or instigators of goodness or evil in us. Unlike animals who have no need for religion or the supernatural, our human arrogance has made us devise narratives to justify the unnatural concepts of goodness and evil.

The parallel concepts of right and wrong are simply the mirror images of goodness and evil when the system is used to evaluate human actions. So, the post-modern rejection of the unequivocal opposition between right and wrong may unwittingly be correct, but for very different reasons.

In conclusion, our complex brains and the resultant higher intelligence necessitate the advent of exclusively human concepts of goodness and evil in order to rationalize our complicated lives.