Common good

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For the economic meaning of common good see common good (economics).

The common good is a term that can refer to several different concepts. In the popular meaning, the common good describes a specific "good" that is shared and beneficial for all (or most) members of a given community. This is also how the common good is broadly defined in philosophy, ethics, and political science.

[edit] Common good in philosophy, ethics and political science

In ethics and political science to promote the common good means to benefit members of society. Thus, in essence, helping the common good equates with helping all people, or at least the vast majority of them. In that sense, the term could be synonymous with the general welfare.

However there is no strict definition of the common good for each situation. The good that is common between person A and person B may not be the same as between person A and person C. Thus the common good can often change, although there are some things such as the basic requirements for staying alive: food, drinking water, shelter that are always good for all people.

The common good is often regarded as a utilitarian ideal, thus representing "the greatest possible good for the greatest possible number of individuals". In the best case scenario, the "greatest possible number of individuals" would mean all humans.

These definitions of the common good present it as a quality which is convertible, or reducible, to the sum total of all the private interests of the individual members of a society and interchangeable with them. Another definition of the common good, as the quintessential goal of the State, requires an admission of the individual's basic right in society, which is, namely, the right of everyone to the opportunity to freely shape his life by responsible action, in pursuit of virtue and in accordance with the moral law. The common good, then, is the sum total of the conditions of social life which enable people the more easily and straightforwardly to do so. The object of State sovereignty is the free choice of means for creating these conditions.

Some assert that promoting the common good is the goal of democracy (in the sphere of politics) and socialism (in the sphere of economics). Also, it is a central tenet of free-market capitalism going back to Adam Smith's "Guiding hand."

[edit] Application in American Politics

Increasingly, progressive left political actors and activists are adopting the language of the common good to describe the overarching moral narrative of the progressive agenda. As an ethical and moral imperative, the common good is central to the tenets of many religious faiths and can be succinctly described as doing unto others, to use a Biblical phrase, as we would wish done unto ourselves. Aristotle was the first to articulate an ethical understanding of common good, followed by Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas who developed the concept into standard moral theology.

Concerning contemporary American politics, the common good language is increasingly identifiable with political actors of the progressive left. First described by Michael Tomasky in The American Prospect magazine ^[1] and John Halpin at the Center for American Progress ^[2], the political understanding of the common good has grown. This debate was followed by the Take Back America Conference which identified the common good as a salient political message for progressive candidates ^[3] and by the liberal magazine The Nation^[4]. More recently, the common good rhetoric is being used by political actors in an explicitly religious context, such as Kansans for Faithful Citizenship^[5]