Let us now attack this problem by a new method. A survey of all the things which this word good indicates reveals not only that it denotes (or simply points out) a host of distinguishable objects and properties, but that it also connotes (or implies) an exceedingly numerous array of human activities. And while the sum total of all these denotations and connotations appears at first to be an unwieldy mass, it can, I think, be suitably dealt with under the following five classes:—
A. That which is useful, fit, serviceable, and the like, for any purpose whatsoever. With such primitive use of the term, the purpose involved is neither praised nor blamed. The burglar’s jimmy is as “good” for his purpose as is an overcoat to keep out the cold. Some ethical writers refer to this as immediate, as opposed to remote or mediate good, or as non-moral as opposed to moral good. It is “good for,” without any limitations as to what the “for” implies. William James might have called it “decerebrate good.”
B. That which is useful, fit, or serviceable in the sense of being continuously or continually so. An extended time being here introduced, good now becomes almost synonymous with dependable. Our concept here may refer to anything that sustains life, or brings peace and contentment in society, and hence at one moment it emphasizes intelligence and skill, while at another it points directly to benevolent, spiritual, and esthetic agencies. Moreover, it not only denotes property (Ex. 28, “goods”), but also frequently connotes an emotional enthusiasm in the possessor of it.
C. That which fulfils expectation. This signification is sometimes equivalent to “normal” or “typical,” which terms are also frequently included in the connotation of “useful” and “dependable.” But here a distinctly new factor enters into the use of this concept, namely, the tone of voice by which the word “good” is uttered, for all colors and shades of emotion and sentiment may be registered by this means. Hence the concept “good” may be used to imply that which just passably fulfils expectation, or—
D. It may be used to indicate that expectation has been greatly and even suddenly exceeded, in which case it sometimes denotes the presence of something which is rated far above the normal, the immediately useful, or the mildly beneficent (thereby identifying itself with some of the significations exhibited in Class B), or—
E. It may be merely expletive. Here the use of the term “good” rapidly becomes exotic. It signifies only surprise, shock, or spasm. “Good” as an expletive also becomes closely allied with “good” as an adverb, in which case its significance as a term by which to express a judgment of value rapidly evaporates.
The Results of an Experiment to Determine Which of These Five Classes Are Implied by the Seventy-Nine Significations of the Word “Good”
The choice of these five classes was the result of a test carried out over a period of several years. Each one of the seventy-nine significations was printed on a separate slip of paper, and then, first choosing one of them at random, and employing it as a tentative standard, the points of similarity and difference between it and the remaining significations were determined and recorded. From this procedure there gradually arose, by differentiation and condensation, the five classes we have just indicated, which, as may be observed, are defined so as to include as many and to exclude as few of the uses of “good” as possible. Had our classes been defined with too great emphasis upon the meaning of any single term of our array, the whole idea of a classification would have had to be abandoned.
Having thus determined upon these five classes as representative and significant, one hundred college students were asked to ponder these classes in connection with the subjoined array of the common uses of the word “good,” to choose one of the classes as the one most appropriate in each case, and then to choose as many other of these classes as seemed to be involved, and to rank them in order of their importance. For example, they were shown the first two terms of the array,—(1) “Good food; fit to eat, untainted,” and (2) “Good food; nutritious, palatable,” and were asked whether they belonged in Class A, B, C, D, or E. It was at once seen that membership in more than one class was implied in both cases, but it was also admitted that nutritious and palatable food (No. 2) was a more dependable “good” than was the food specified by example No. 1. First choices were consequently indicated on this basis. After that, second, third, and succeeding choices were made for Nos. 1 and 2; following which, the remainder of the array was treated in the same manner.
The average of the results derived from this experiment indicates that Class B (dependable “good”) has a majority of votes, it being given first place 49 times, and a subsidiary place 75 times. Class C was given first place 20 times, and a secondary place 65 times. Class A was the first to be implicated in 5 uses of the word “good,” and was mentioned as a later choice 26 other times. Class D was voted to be the one most obviously implied only 2 times, but was mentioned in an associative relationship 59 times, while Class E, which received only one vote, got that for first place. The importance of Class B is thus clearly apparent. However, an almost equally significant fact seems to be that there were only five cases in which one class alone was implicated, whereas two classes were used in 18 cases, three classes were used in 34 cases, and four classes were simultaneously implicated by 20 terms of this array. The appended chart renders this distribution and overlapping more obvious. From all this, moreover, we seem to be warranted in inferring that, with all the unlikeness there is between these various synonyms for “good” when taken one at a time, when taken all together (sub specie aeternitatis, as Spinoza would say) there is more of a common core of meaning in them than one might naïvely expect. Consequently, we may safely presume that if we can satisfactorily define any one of the preceding five classes of “good” in physiological terms, we shall at the same time have hinted the definitions of all the remaining classes.