Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Nature of Goodness by George Herbert Palmer
page 20 of 153 (13%)

[Fig. 1]

But drawing our diagram in this fashion and finding a little gap
between D and A, the completing mind of man longs to fill up that gap.
We have no warrant for doing anything of the sort; but let us try the
experiment and see what effect will follow. Under the new arrangement
we find that not only is D good for A, but that A, being good for B
and for C, is also good for D. To express these facts in full it would
be necessary to put a point on each end of the arrow connecting A and
D.

[Fig. 2]

But the same would be true of the relation between A and B; that is,
B, being good for C and for D, is also good for A. Or, as similar
reasoning would hold throughout the figure, all the arrows appearing
there should be supplied with heads at both ends. And there is one
further correction. A is good for B and for C; that is, A is good for
C. The same relation should also be indicated between B and D. So that
to render our diagram complete it would be necessary to supply it with
two diagonal arrows having double heads. It would then assume the
following form.

[Fig. 3]

Here is a picture of intrinsic goodness. In this figure we have a
whole represented in which every part is good for every other part.
But this is merely a pictorial statement of the definition which Kant
once gave of an organism. By an organism he says, we mean that
DigitalOcean Referral Badge