Editing Common good (section)

=== 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"/>