Ariadne's Thread on Property
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  Ayesha Speaking

Speaker Let me add something about the idea of the common good. Sometimes people think that utilitarianism is aimed at the common good. But as I understand the concept, that is not true.

Utilitarianism aggregates individual goods (for example, individual pleasures) and attempts to maximize the total or the average good. My idea of the common good is something different. For me, the common good includes the good of each and every individual. To advance the common good we must advance the good of every person. It might mean, for example, guaranteeing food, shelter, education, and medical care for every single person in our society. There is no attempt to maximize something by trading off one person's good for that of a group.

For that reason, the common good can be used as the basis for individual rights that are resistant to tradeoffs.



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