Editing Common good (section)

==In the history of moral and political thought==
=== Historical overview ===
Under one name or another, the common good has been a recurring theme throughout the history of political philosophy.<ref name="Diggs 283–293">{{Cite journal|last=Diggs|first=B. J.|date=1973-01-01|title=The Common Good as Reason for Political Action|jstor=2379966|journal=Ethics|volume=83|issue=4|pages=283–293|doi=10.1086/291887|s2cid=145088595}}</ref> As one contemporary scholar observes, [[Aristotle]] used the idea of "the common interest" ({{Lang|grc-latn|to koinei sympheron}}, in [[Greek language|Greek]]) as the basis for his distinction between "right" constitutions, which are in the common interest, and "wrong" constitutions, which are in the interest of rulers;<ref>{{Cite book|title=Politics|last=Aristotle|pages=3, 6–7, 12}}</ref> [[Thomas Aquinas|Saint Thomas Aquinas]] held "the common good" (''{{Lang|la|bonum commune}},'' in [[Latin]]) to be the goal of law and government;<ref>{{Cite book|title=Summa Theologiae|last=Aquinas|first=Thomas|pages=1, 2. 90. 2 and 4}}</ref> [[John Locke]] declared that "the peace, safety, and public good of the people" are the goals of political society, and further argued that "the well being of the people shall be the supreme law";<ref>{{Cite book|title=Second Treatise of Government|last=Locke|first=John|pages=131, 158}}</ref> [[David Hume]] contended that "social conventions" are adopted and given moral support in virtue of the fact that they serve the "public" or "common" interest;<ref>{{Cite book|title=Teatise 3, 2. 2.|last=Hume|first=David}}</ref> [[James Madison]] wrote of the "public", "common", or "general" good as closely tied with justice and declared that justice is the end of government and civil society;<ref>{{Cite book|title=Federalist|last=Publius|pages=10, 51}}</ref> and [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] understood "the common good" ({{Lang|fr|le bien commun}}, in [[French language|French]]) to be the object of a society's [[general will]] and the highest end pursued by government.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Social Contract|last=Rousseau|first=Jean-Jacques|pages=2. 1}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Diggs|first=B. J.|date=1973-01-01|title=The Common Good as Reason for Political Action|jstor=2379966|journal=Ethics|volume=83|issue=4|pages=283–284|doi=10.1086/291887|s2cid=145088595}}</ref>

Though these thinkers differed significantly in their views of what the common good consists in, as well as over what the state should do to promote it, they nonetheless agreed that the common good is the end of government, that it is a good of all the citizens, and that no government should become the "perverted servant of special interests",<ref name=":0" /> whether these special interests be understood as Aristotle's "interest of the rulers", Locke's "private good", Hume's and Madison's "interested factions", or Rousseau's "particular wills".<ref name=":0"/>

===Ancient Greeks===
For the [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greeks]], the Common Good was the flourishing of the hierarchical network of people, known as the [[Polis#The_polis_in_Ancient_Greek_philosophy|polis]] (one's city, or state). The phrase "common good" then, does not appear in texts of [[Plato]], but instead the phrase "the good of a city".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Plato |title=Republic |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book V. 462a |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plat.+Rep.+5.462a&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168 |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref>  In ''[[The Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'', Plato's character [[Socrates]] contends repeatedly that a particular common goal exists in politics and society,<ref name="Simm">{{cite journal|last1=Simm|first1=Kadri|title=The Concepts of Common Good and Public Interest: From Plato to Biobanking|journal=Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics|date=16 August 2011|volume=20|issue=4|pages=554–62|doi=10.1017/S0963180111000296|pmid=21843386|s2cid=36435554 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1240338}}</ref> and that that goal is the same as the goal for a flourishing human being, namely, to be a [[philosopher king]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Plato |title=Republic |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book V. 473d |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plat.+Rep.+5.473&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168 |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref> ruled by the highest good, [[Reason]], rather than one of Plato's four lesser goods: honor-seeking, money-making, pleasure-seeking, or empassioned addiction.  For Plato, the best political order is one in which the entire society submits to the dictates of the leaders' faculty of Reason, even [[communism|communistically]] holding possessions, wives, and children in common,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Plato |title=Republic |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book V. 462b-465b |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plat.+Rep.+5.462&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0168 |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref> creating a "cohesion and unity" that "result[s] from the common feelings of pleasure and pain which you get when all members of a society are glad or sorry for the same successes and failures."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Plato|title=Republic|date=2003|publisher=Penguin Books|location=London|pages=462a–b}}</ref>

Plato's student [[Aristotle]], considered by many to be the father of the idea of a common good, uses the concept of "the common interest" ({{Lang|grc-latn|to koinei sympheron}} in [[Greek language|Greek]]) as the basis for his distinction between his three "right" constitutions, which are in the common interest, and "wrong" constitutions, which are in the interest of rulers.<ref name="3_good_constitutions_A">{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book IV.2. (1289a27-37) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D4%3Asection%3D1289a |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref><ref name="3_good_constitutions_B">{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Nicomachean Ethics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book VIII.10. (1160a31-35) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0054%3Abekker+page%3D1160a |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref><ref name="Diggs 283–293"/> To Aristotle, Plato is wrong about the desire to simply impose top-down unity;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book II.1-2. (1261a4-23) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D2%3Asection%3D1261a |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref> for Aristotle, a common good is synthesized upwardly/[[Teleology|teleologically]] from the lesser goods of individuals, and their various kinds of larger-and-larger partnerships: marital couple, or parent-over-child, or master-over-slave; household; then village; then state.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book I.2. (1252a24-1253a38) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0058 |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref>  In this teleological view, the good stems from objective facts about human life and purpose, which may vary, depending upon peoples' occupations, virtue-levels, etc.<ref name="Simm" />  However, noting that only citizens have the salvation (common good) of the city at heart,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book III.4. (1276b28-31) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D3%3Asection%3D1276b |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref> Aristotle argues that, regardless of form of government,<ref name="3_good_constitutions_A"/><ref name="3_good_constitutions_B"/><ref name="Politics_III_13">{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book III.13. (1284b25-35) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D3%3Asection%3D1284b |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref>  those who have more of a rational understanding of the needs of the state's salvation, are entitled to a greater share in administering and determining justice, within the light of its common good,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book III.9. (1281a2-8) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D3%3Asection%3D1281a |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book VII.8-9. (1328b33-1329a40) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D7%3Asection%3D1328b |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref> than those who have less, or no such understanding or concern for it, such as selfish despots and political factions,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book III.6-7. (1279a16-20, 1279b4-10) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D3%3Asection%3D1279a |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref> as well as uneducated artisans and freedmen, women and children, slaves, etc.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book III.4-5. (1277a19-33,1277b34-1278a14) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D3%3Asection%3D1278a |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref><ref name="Clayton">{{cite web|last1=Clayton|first1=Edward|title=Aristotle: Politics|url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-pol/|website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}</ref>  More than this, Aristotle argues that rational discourse itself is what the state's Common Good relies upon,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book I.2. (1253a7-17) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D1%3Asection%3D1253a |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref> identifying those who lack it as "slaves by nature",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book I.5. (1254b20) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D1%3Asection%3D1254b |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book I.13. (1260a13) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D1%3Asection%3D1260a |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref> while those who excel in it are nearly divine,<ref name="Politics_III_13"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Nicomachean Ethics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book X.7. (1177b15-35) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0054%3Abekker+page%3D1177b |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref><ref>Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics [Internet]. The Internet Classics Archive; available at http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html. I.2.1094b7–10 (last accessed 30 Jan 2011).</ref> possessing in themselves the whole purpose for which states exist, namely, the perfectly complete good/blessed life.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Politics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book III.6,9. (1278b24, 1280a32, 1280b33) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D3%3Asection%3D1280a |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref><ref name="Nicomachean_VIII_9">{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Nicomachean Ethics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book VIII.9. (1160a8-30) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0054%3Abekker+page%3D1160a |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref>  In his [[Nicomachean Ethics]] then, Aristotle ties up the Common Good of the state, with that of friendship, implying by this, that friendly, rational discourse is the primary activity by which citizens and rulers bring about the Common Good, both amongst themselves, and so far as it involves their inferiors.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aristotle |title=Nicomachean Ethics |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |pages=Book VIII.11-12. (1160a8-30) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0054%3Abekker+page%3D1160a |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref>  According to one common contemporary usage, rooted in Aristotle's philosophy, common good then refers to "a good proper to, and attainable, only by the community, yet individually shared in, by its members."<ref name="Dupré" />

===Renaissance Florence===
During the 15th and 16th centuries, the common good was one of several important themes of political thought in Renaissance Florence. The thought goes back to Thomas Aquinas theory of common good being widespread in whole premodern Europe.<ref>Konstantin Langmaier, Dem Land Ere und Nucz, Frid und Gemach: Das Land als Ehr-, Nutz- und Friedensgemeinschaft: Ein Beitrag zur Diskussion um den Gemeinen Nutzen. In: . In: Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Band 103, 2016, S. 178–200.]</ref> In a later work, Niccolò Machiavelli speaks of the {{Lang|it|bene commune}} ({{Gloss|common good}}) or {{Lang|it|comune utilità}} ({{Gloss|common utility}}), which refers to the general well-being of a community as a whole; however, he mentions this term only 19 times throughout his works.<ref name="Waldemar"/> In key passages of the ''[[Discourses on Livy]]'', he indicates that "the common good (''{{Lang|it|comune utilità}}'') . . . is drawn from a free way of life ({{Lang|it|vivere libero}})" but is not identical with it.<ref name="Waldemar">{{cite journal | last1 = Waldemar | first1 = Hanasz | year = 2010 | title = The common good in Machiavelli | journal = History of Political Thought | volume = 31 | issue = 1| pages = 57–85 }}</ref><ref>''Discourses,'' I 16, p. 174.</ref> Elsewhere in the ''Discourses,'' freedom, safety and dignity are explicitly stated to be elements of the common good and some form of property and family life are also implied.<ref name="Waldemar"/> Furthermore, the common good brought by freedom includes wealth, economic prosperity, security, enjoyment and good life.<ref name="Waldemar"/> However, though Machiavelli speaks of an instrumental relationship between freedom and common good, the general well-being is not precisely identical with political freedom: elsewhere in the ''Discourses,'' Machiavelli argues that an impressive level of common good can be achieved by sufficiently autocratic rulers.<ref name="Waldemar"/> Nevertheless, Machiavelli's common good can be viewed as acting for the good of the majority, even if that means to oppress others through the endeavor.<ref name="Waldemar"/><ref>''Discourses,'' I 2, p. 132;''Discourses,'' I 9, p. 154.</ref> Machiavelli's common good is viewed by some scholars as not as "common", as he frequently states that the end of republics is to crush their neighbors.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCsxDwAAQBAJ&q=hulliung+citizen+machiavelli|title=Citizen Machiavelli|last=Hulliung|first=Mark|date=2017-07-05|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781351528481|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ia_oOgHlR58C|title=Machiavelli's New Modes and Orders: A Study of the Discourses on Livy|last=Mansfield|first=Harvey C.|date=2001-04-15|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226503707|pages=193–194|language=en}}</ref>

===Jean-Jacques Rousseau===
In [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Jean-Jacques Rousseau's]] ''[[The Social Contract]]'', composed in the mid-18th century, Rousseau argues that society can function only to the extent that individuals have interests in common, and that the end goal of any state is the realization of the common good. He further posits that the common good can be identified and implemented only by heeding the general will of a political community, specifically as expressed by that community's sovereign. Rousseau maintains that the [[general will]] always tends toward the common good, though he concedes that democratic deliberations of individuals will not always express the general will. Furthermore, Rousseau distinguished between the general will and the will of all, stressing that while the latter is simply the sum total of each individual's desires, the former is the "one will which is directed towards their common preservation and general well-being."<ref>''Of the Social Contract'', Book IV, Chapter 1, Paragraphs 1 & 2</ref> Political authority, to Rousseau, should be understood as legitimate only if it exists according to the general will and toward the common good. The pursuit of the common good, then, enables the state to act as a moral community.<ref name="Britannica"/>

===John Rawls's Theory of Justice===
[[John Rawls]] defines the common good as "certain general conditions that are ... equally to everyone's advantage". In his [[A Theory of Justice|''Theory of Justice'']], Rawls argues for a principled reconciliation of liberty and equality, applied to the basic structure of a well-ordered society, which will specify exactly such general conditions. Starting with an artificial device he calls the [[original position]], Rawls defends two particular principles of justice by arguing that these are the positions reasonable persons would choose were they to choose principles from behind a veil of ignorance. Such a "veil" is one that essentially blinds people to all facts about themselves so they cannot tailor principles to their own advantage. According to Rawls, ignorance of these details about oneself will lead to principles that are fair to all. If an individual does not know how he will end up in his own conceived society, he is likely not going to privilege any one class of people, but rather develop a scheme of justice that treats all fairly. In particular, Rawls claims that those in the original position would all adopt a [[Minimax#Maximin in philosophy|"maximin"]] strategy which would maximize the prospects of the least well-off individual or group. In this sense, Rawls's understanding of the common good is intimately tied with the well-being of the least advantaged. 
Rawls claims that the parties in the original position would adopt two governing principles, which would then regulate the assignment of rights and duties and regulate the distribution of social and economic advantages across society. The [[John Rawls|First Principle of Justice]] states that "First: each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others".<ref>Rawls, p.53 revised edition; p.60 old 1971 first edition</ref> The [[John Rawls|Second Principle of Justice]] provides that social and economic inequalities are to be arranged such that "(a) they are to be of the greatest benefit to the least-advantaged members of society, consistent with the just savings principle" (''the difference principle''); and "(b) offices and positions must be open to everyone under conditions of 'fair [[equality of opportunity]]{{'"}}.<ref>Rawls, 1971, p.&nbsp;302; revised edition, p.&nbsp;53</ref>

=== In non-Western moral and political thought ===
The idea of a common good plays a role in [[Confucianism|Confucian political philosophy]], which on most interpretations stresses the importance of the subordination of individual interests to group or collective interests,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Confucian Political Philosophy – Oxford Handbooks|journal=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy|volume=1|url=http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199238804.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199238804-e-48|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199238804.001.0001|year=2011|isbn=9780199238804|last1=Wong|first1=David|editor1-first=George|editor1-last=Klosko}}</ref> or at the very least, the mutual dependence between the flourishing of the individual and the flourishing of the group.<ref>Bloom, Irene (2009) (trans.). ''Mencius''. New York: Columbia University Press.</ref> In [[Islamic political thought]], many modern thinkers have identified conceptions of the common good while endeavoring to ascertain the fundamental or universal principles underlying divine [[Sharia|shari‘a law]].<ref name=":1">Bulliet, R. & Bowering, G. & Cook, D. & Crone, P. & Kadi, W. & Euben, R. L..''The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought.'' Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012.</ref> These fundamentals or universal principles have been largely identified with the "objectives" of the shari‘a ({{Lang|ar-latn|maqāṣid al-sharī‘a}}), including concepts of the common good or public interest ({{Lang|ar-latn|maṣlaḥa ‘āmma}}, in modern terminology).<ref name=":1" /> A notion of the common good arises in contemporary Islamic discussions of the distinction between the fixed and the flexible ({{Lang|ar-latn|al-thābit wa-l-mutaghayyir}}), especially as it relates to modern Islamic conceptions of tolerance, equality, and citizenship: according to some, for instance, universal principles carry greater weight than specific injunctions of the [[Quran|Qur'an]], and in case of conflict, can even supersede or suspend explicit textual injunctions ({{Lang|ar-latn|naṣṣ}}) if this serves the common good.<ref name=":1" />