Where is the origin of the good?

Answer 1

Depends on what you mean. If you're talking western philosophy of ethics, the dialogues of Plato are the right place to start for this question.

No! the above is vague and evasive.

"The Good," as a concept, originates in the nature of beings with a volitional conceptual consciousness - that is: Man. Man's distinctive form of consciousness (rationality) is his primary tool of survival. A bird has wings; the elephant has size; the cheetah has speed; but Man relies upon his forming concepts of what will sustain his life (the good) and what threatens his life (the bad).

Animals employ their distinctive method of survival on a strictly perceptual level. Their five senses provide them with immediate evidence of basic alternatives: eat or sleep, fight or run, etc. Man's conceptual faculty (rationality) allows him to build upon the learning of his ancestors, to plan long-range, to identify benefits and threats to his survival which are not visible to the eye. In discovering what will sustain him, or threaten him, Man must "evaluate" conceptually the facts and circumstances he perceives. A bird can eat wheat, but cannot make bread. Lions can gather in a pride, or wolves in a pack, but they cannot write a Constitution. Animals die of diseases, but Man identifies and seeks to cure them. In "evaluating" facts and circumtances conceptually, Man creates morality, whose fundamental question is: Does [this thing] further sustain Man's life (the good) or does [this thing] threaten Man's life (the bad).

Man can not survive long without employing moral values. The fact that he often "gets it wrong" does not refute the point - it proves it. In history, more people have died as the result of bad morality than from all the diseases combined. "The Good" must be discovered and defined by Man's volitional conceptual consciousness. The Good is that which furthers Man's proper survival. And, survival is selfish.