What is GOOD?

[genkaus]

I'd say that it isn't a moral code we need but a civil and criminal code.

A civil and criminal code simply tells you what you should not do. It cannot dictate what you should do.

There is also a need for a starter set of morals to guide youth.

That's what kindergarten is for - "learn to share", "don't bite", "eat your veggies", "no dessert for you", "because I said so" and so on.

But my point is that any conception of the good which relegates a person to being a rule follower is badly conceived. In the end, one would hope that a person would cultivate ones sense of empathy to a degree that one would extend good manners to others out of a recognition of their inward depth and potential. To my way of thinking the highest good would transcend the category by internalizing it unselfconsciously. Ultimately rule following must fall away or else our attempts at moral education will have been side tracked.

While I agree with you about rule-following, I disagree that the sense of empathy should be the basis for developing one's moral sense. Like I said before, given the contradictions that would come from it when applied consciously, doing so subconsciously would be a sure-fire way of having a great amount of internal conflict.