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 Mason's
Meditations
If
you're looking for something to chew over, some thoughtful seeds
for mental cultivation, bookmark this page for Jeff Mason's fortnightly
meditations. To think in or take away...
Number
4. The Good of Things
What
good are the things we pursue, for there is no doubt that a consumer
society is in pursuit of goods? We buy things on the understanding
that they are either necessary, good for us, or pleasant. In the
first category are things like food stuffs, clean water, transportation,
clothes and shelter. In the second are high fiber foods, insurance
policies, and exercise. In the third are the things on which we
spend our discretionary money. Mostly we want goods that promise
to indulge our senses, preeminently the sense of touch and taste,
but including those of sight, hearing and even smell, as when we
buy fine wines and perfume, plant roses or aromatic shrubs. Beyond
that there are the pleasures of being seen to possess valuable things,
and appearances in the eyes of others are counted as important in
the world.
The
categories of good things are not fixed. For some people, no doubt,
driving a Mercedes is a necessity. For others, any kind of car will
do, as long as it runs. Furthermore, what counts as a good thing
can change in the course of life. A bicycle may be a great thing
to a poor person who has to walk everywhere, but not much, perhaps,
to that same person who has become financially successful, and now
wants a fine car. In addition, we need some things for the sake
of other things. So a good car is one that gets you safely from
A to B. If it doesn't do that, it is not good as a car, no matter
how stylish or expensive it may be. The good of things often depends
upon their functions, and that, in turn, depends upon our ends and
purposes. It is hard not to interpret the good of things as species
related.
So
the good of some things lie outside themselves. Can a thing ever
have an intrinsic good, a good that belongs to it as a thing? I
don't believe so. We choose to possess things as tools that we can
use, or that we find pleasant or enjoyable. Therefore, it turns
out that the good of things does not lie in the things themselves,
but in our relationship to them.
Mason's
Meditations will next be updated on January 15th 2001
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Previous
Meditations
3.
(15th
December 2000)
2.
(1st December 2000)
1. (15th November
2000)
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