What is good anyway? (part 1)
Michael: So, Chidi, just want to double check. How do ethical philosophers feel about murder? Chidi: It’s frowned upon. Michael: OK. What if the reason you want to murder someone is to make your life easier? That’s OK, right? (Series 2, episode 7) The characters in The Good Place struggle to identify what makes a particular action “good.” They are initially told that this can be precisely determined (to two decimal places): Michael: During your time on Earth, every one of your actions had a positive or a negative value, depending on how much good or bad that action put into the universe. Every sandwich you ate, every time you bought a magazine, every single thing you did had an effect that rippled out over time and ultimately created some amount of good or bad. (Series 1, episode 1) Which is quite similar to Utilitarianism, where the sum total of positive and negative effects is what matters: Chidi: Utilitarianism posits that the correct ch...