Needless to say, it’s rather difficult to answer the question: “What is the meaning of the concept of good?” - but we will try. This task is difficult because in the concept of being, good and evil are absolute, and when it comes to individual societies and cultures, then everyone has their own ideas about good and bad.
Definition of good
It makes no sense here to talk about specific religious ideas, it is more productive to formulate the general principle of distinguishing good and evil. We offer the reader the following option: to call good what serves life, and evil that opposes it.
For example, why do you need to help others? Because it makes their fate easier. Mercy, compassion is good, because it gives hope to another person, it signals to him that he is not alone. Of course, the Christian faith is at the heart of our understanding of good and evil, since Western culture is built on this basis, and Russia is still more West than East, especially now. Even those who have never opened the Bible in their lives know what is good and what is bad. And the basis of this intuitive knowledge lies the truths of the Old and New Testaments (more, of course, the latter). It is not very clear yet, what is the meaning of the concept of "good"? But do not worry, everything will fall into place when we move on to the section on the relativity of morality.
Definition of evil
According to the agreement, we will consider evil that is contrary to life and serves death and destruction. By the way, so that the reader does not think that we are quick to invent a bicycle, let’s say that Erich Fromm used a similar classification (if someone does not know what a scientist looks like, see photo). The philosopher distinguished between "necrophilic" and "productive" character. The essence of the first is the total destruction of oneself and the world, and the second is the love of all living things. Now our conscience is clear, therefore we continue.
So, from this point of view, torturing a cat or a dog is bad, because the suffering of animals hurts them.
If a person is really kind, he will not be able to offend the smaller brothers. In general, to destroy is much easier than to build. Hurting a cat or child is easier than raising a son, daughter or pet.
The problem of surgery and euthanasia
Now that it is more or less known what is the meaning of the concepts of “good” and “evil”, we can proceed to how things really are, that is, to the relativity of good and bad.
In most religions, suicide is a serious sin precisely because a person decides when to leave, thus helping death directly and reaching the climax of self-destruction. But modern ideas are already somewhat different. It is difficult to distinguish good from evil in them. For example, the surgeon sometimes causes unprecedented suffering to a person, but only so that the patient lives easier in the future. On the one hand, the doctor does evil, but in the long run it will transform into good.
Or, for example, the problem of euthanasia. Death is the ultimate evil, it would seem. But life is sometimes more painful. Now we will not catch up with fear. But sometimes a person continues to live only as a biological body, and this condition involves fantastic pains, and the big question is whether it should be considered life. Ethical philosophers speak out unequivocally: euthanasia is evil. They just proceed from the fact that any form of life is sacred, as for ordinary Western people (euthanasia is prohibited in Russia), they sometimes prefer a premature death to a long painful life. There is a contradiction between theory and practice. Thus, the question of what meaning is embedded in the concept of “good” remains open. Therefore, everyone is free to solve the moral problem at their discretion.