In the first chapter of the Monologion Anselm argues that there must be some one thing that is supremely good, through which all good things have their goodness.
Traditional axiology seeks to investigate what things are good, how good they are, and how their goodness is related to one another.
The good, if unrewarded for their goodness, suffer from no permanent injustice.
Creatures are called good or just because their goodness or justice imitates or reflects the goodness or justice of God.
It never struck me, until recently, that readers "identify with" a character for their goodness and really do want to see the good win and the bad redeemed.
If humans are naturally good at this stage of human evolution, their goodness is merely a negative and amounts to the absence of evil.
Their goodness, perhaps overdone here and there, isn't just good news, it's also bad news.
Good persons act politically as good citizens and are thereby maintained or extended in their goodness.
But their goodness is so thorough that it may inspire some unkind thoughts.
