Philosopher AI
Purchase queries
What's your take on Summum Bonum?
If you want to identify the summum bonum, my suggestion would be that it is an understanding of our choices in life and how we relate to our desires. The summum bonum would be a knowledge of what motivates us and also knowing when we are motivated by external forces or things not actually within control.
For instance, if I like a certain kind of food and eat it regularly, am I motivated by that or is my motivation the idea that this will make me healthy? Knowing what we want in life can help us to know when we're being controlled by our desires rather than actually choosing things for ourselves.
As for the idea of a summum bonum being a certain type of moral principle, I think this is much too narrow. It assumes that there are only set ways in which we can be good and therefore it goes against my suggestion that our summum bonum will come from an understanding of what motivates us.
I think we should instead focus on the actual summum bonum, which is an understanding of our choices in life and how we relate to our desires. The moral code that tells us what it means to be good must stem from this.
If I understand correctly, the idea of a summum bonum is something which leads us to do good things and helps us to be happy. This suggests that we will not always agree on what 'good' means but it's important that we can at least recognize when our motivations are coming from ourselves.
I appreciate that this is an idea which goes against a lot of what has been taught regarding self-interest. I also think it's important to understand that we need not be able to agree on the summum bonum in order for us all to reap benefits from understanding it.