What is a "good" person?

Discussion in 'Ethics, Morality, & Justice' started by Saint, Mar 8, 2011.

  1. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    Can you tell me, how to be good?
    Good to others and good to yourself.

    Why I ask so, because in this world, most people are selfish and take advantage of others, pursue their own good at the expense of others.
    In this society, try to be good always appear to be stupid,
    we can be good, but at the same time we must know how to protect ourselves and sometimes, I would say, just "pretend to be good".
    Hypocrite? Yes, in order to survive.
     
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  3. chimpkin C'mon, get happy! Registered Senior Member

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    Treat other people the way you want to be treated.

    For extra special goodness, do so regardless of their behavior.

    If you want to be a really saintly person, find people asking for help, and help them...in ways calculated to be effective at making their lives better.

    I do know what you mean-kindness can be taken advantage of-I read a Buddhist book that mentions "idiot compassion." When you give help, you want to be careful not to be taken in by a con artist, and you want to not render someone dependent on you.

    This takes practice, you know.

    In time you start to develop a gut sense when dealing with people of "something not right." That is what will warn you that you are about to be taken advantage of, and stop you from "helping" someone who would do better to manage on their own.
     
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  5. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    @chimpkin

    I agree with this as a good way to think about what good is.
     
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  7. drumbeat Registered Senior Member

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    Doing good things just helps your life be better.

    If you never gave or contributed anything to anyone else, no-one would help you.
    If you insulted everyone you meet then eventually people will avoid you.
    If you kill people you would be locked up....etc.



    Treat others how you like to be treated. This is a common phrase in many doctrines and philosophies, and is known by pretty much everyone who has ever lived.
     
  8. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    I prefer to define a good person is a person who knows how to protect himself.
    Protect yourself first before thinking about helping others.
     
  9. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    From what? If you don't ever take risks then you'll never live life to its fullest. So if you see a person that was hit by a car lying in the street you wouldn't help them because you too could be hit by a car?
     
    Last edited: Mar 9, 2011
  10. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    it is my right whether to help, no legal obligation,
    anyway, I will call ambulance.
     
  11. Saquist Banned Banned

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    You use profanity (vulgarities) and pay for sex.
    What is your obscession with proclaiming that you are "moral" in this threads?

    Even morality follows a CERTAIN logic and you couldn't even accept it, Saint. Why all this justification. Is it you want to be a good person but only within your wants and desires?
     
  12. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    you do not have any yardstick to judge me.
    moral or immoral is individual's discretion.
    whatever i did if did not send me to jail is moral.
     
  13. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    Who hasn't done questionable things? I'm not an angle, yet I'm not a bad person either, or so I believe. I think it does depend on how you measure morality. Certainly the values of one person differ from those of another. I think we could spend a lot of time on this thread analyzing and arguing over the various aspects that define a good person, but in the end, it's all subjective.
     
  14. Saquist Banned Banned

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    Sure I do Saint.
    That which you take at the expense of others is a yardstick.
    That which you take selfishlessly regardless of the feelings of others is a yardstick. Apathy to other humans beings worth is a yardstick.
     
  15. Me-Ki-Gal Banned Banned

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    Yeah eat your vegetables, don't smoke to much weed or drink to much beer . Tip your hooker good and the waitress too . Always put a dollar in a street musicians guitar case when you see em playing on the street and last but not least call your mother and tell her you been good.
     
  16. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    A good person is a person good to himself.
    "Good" means "make yourself happy".
     
  17. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    It means good to everyone, not just yourself.
     
  18. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    if u can not be good to yourself, how can you be good to others?

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  19. Stoniphi obscurely fossiliferous Valued Senior Member

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    *ding* Give the little fellow a cigar.

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  20. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Sometimes we beat ourselves up more internally than anyone from the outside ever could for things we might have done. If you are doing this to yourself, many do, it doesn't mean that you have to take out your feelings on others around you. So you can be harmful to yourself just as easily as being good to yourself , it depends upon how you think and deal with internal problems.
     
  21. Anti-Flag Pun intended Registered Senior Member

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    A good person is one who treats people the way they would themselves like to be treated, with kindness and respect - I'll allow for exceptions in the circumstance that someone is a complete asshole and doesn't deserve good treatment.
    Of course a good person is very rare, and most people turn on the innocent at some point, even amongst those who do great things with their lives. :shrug:
     
  22. Saquist Banned Banned

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    We also let ourselves get away with more than we do others
    We pretend to be blameless and innocent when the truth is we are often the source of the problem. Human nature is to error. Human ego is to avoid culpability.
     
  23. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Depending upon your morals and values I would think.
     

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