Hume claims that there needs to be a natural (non-moral) motive for morally good actions, for otherwise they could only be done because they are morally good; and that would be circular, since our judgment of acts as morally good reflects our approval of the motives and traits that give rise to the acts in question (T 479, 483).
Likewise, my giving money to a development charity may have moral value, that is, be morally good.
Some would hold that moral reasoning is the only morally good motive, while others might emphasize pro-social emotions such as sympathy.
For example, is a moral being a being that makes moral judgements or a being that is morally good?
Some argue that humans should enhance their moral capacities by adopting institutions that facilitate morally good motives and behaviour.
He locates not just the origin of morality but the very identity of the morally good in our capacity to empathize.
Ethics, also called moral philosophy, the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad, right and wrong.
There is no morally good atheist, because there really is no objective morality.
We would normally think that there is a moral connection between 'good' and 'ought', and that therefore a morally good act ought to be performed: if an act is morally good, then it ought to be performed.
There are, of course, widely divergent views on what motives are morally good, and thus on what kinds of psychological changes would constitute moral enhancements of this sort.
