What's a Good Society?

For different people good societeies mean different things. Over time the idea of what is beneficial in a society will change, and certainly has. The America of the 50s, which many deem the ideal, is quite different thatn the America of today. Eisenhower said, ""The freedom of the individual and his willingness to follow real leadership are at the core of America's strength." It would be difficult to find agreement among people about what exactly is good. Especially in this day and age of divided poulations and dvisive rhetoric, who would ever think that people could agree on one idea of what makes a thing good, or not good?

One of the first philosophers to talk about the idea of what is good was Plato. 'The Good' is objective, not open to interpreation.

it is fairly easy to argue that what is good is subjective. However, Plato also thought about what good is. He wanted to get to the meaning of the word. Plato was trying to define something a little bigger. He was trying to conceive of an ultimate Good. Of course, this was 2400 years ago and attitudes have changed.

We might not be able to agree that there is an ultimate good for everyone on the earth because different cultural backgrounds will require different behaviors. For example, Americans think a blonde girl in a bikini is the greatest, but other folks from more conservative cultures will think she is not respectable.