The Centrality of the Good

In the development of both political philosophy and engagement in political activity, the Good holds a central role. Properly understood, politics is directed by the human need to discern and follow what is good in-itself, which is not necessarily defined by the predominant interest within any given community or culture. Essential good, or that which is good by nature, does not always align with our perceptions of the common good or with our immediate interests. Scott John Hammond sorts out the difference between essential Good and what we take to be good under the influence of the will as it pursues various interests and preferences. The Centrality of the Good: Reflections on Politics and Being follows Plato's understanding of the Good as the "object and cause of all knowledge" and the essence of all political activity. Much of the book is devoted to an examination of the relationship between the good and the right. In response to Rawls, it advances an understanding of the priority of the Good, and thus a notion that the existence of objective right is an extension of the essential good. It also reconsiders the relationship between politics and power, in the end rejecting power as the defining element of political activity. What makes political activity real is not the ability to command or apply force, but rather to discern the essential good and to work as a community of free citizens toward making Good in itself compatible, as a practical concern, with general perceptions of a common good. The Centrality of the Good thus suggests a different language of politics that considers the Good as the primus mobiles of all political and social life. Ultimately, a politics of care and commitment to the good of others is the essence of real political association; the closer politics comes to cultivating disinterest in the pursuit of narrow self-interest while encouraging commitment in the interests of others, the more it embraces what is truly essential to politics.