good
Enable an AI agent to record what is regarded as a good, for whom and on what grounds, so it can assess its realization and evaluate actions that promote, preserve or compromise it.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 31 questions
Identity of the good Establishes exactly what is being valued and at what level of abstraction.
Valued content
Identifies the end, condition or benefit that the claim concerns.
Specified good
Record a candidate definition that identifies what is valued without relying solely on the word good.
- What particular end, condition or benefit does good designate here? definition
- Does the record concern a general good, such as understanding, or its realization for a particular beneficiary? boundary
Bearers and means
Separates the good from things that possess, express or produce it.
Good versus vehicle
Record which associated objects and activities are vehicles for the good and which are claimed to constitute it.
- Is the named thing itself valued, or is it a bearer or means of some further good? definition
- Could the same good be realized through a different object or activity, and what would make it the same good? boundary
Grounds and perspectives Records why goodness is attributed and whose evaluative position supports that attribution.
Reasons for value
Makes the proposed justification for valuing the good explicit.
Value justification
Record whether the good is valued for itself, for further effects or as part of a valued whole, together with the supporting reasons.
- Is this good valued intrinsically, instrumentally, constitutively or through a stated combination? definition
- Who supplied this justification, and what argument, testimony or evidence supports it? provenance
- If the claimed further benefit failed to occur, would the thing still count as a good on this account? boundary
Endorsement and contestation
Locates agreement and disagreement about the attribution of goodness.
Situated attribution
Record who endorses or rejects the attribution and whether disagreement concerns value, meaning or expected effects.
- Which agents or evaluative frameworks regard this as a good, and where is that position expressed? provenance
- Does disagreement concern whether this is valuable, what it means or whether it produces the claimed benefit? boundary
Beneficiaries and distribution Identifies for whom the good is good and how its realization is distributed.
Beneficiary standing
Distinguishes beneficiaries from advocates and decision-makers.
Good for whom
Record intended and observed beneficiaries, including whether the account of benefit is endorsed by them or attributed by others.
- For whom is this claimed to be a good, and is that beneficiary distinct from the person making the claim? definition
- How was the beneficiary's own perspective obtained or, where unavailable, represented? provenance
Allocation of benefits
Examines who can access the good and who bears burdens associated with its provision.
Distribution and exclusion
Record differences in realization across beneficiaries and relevant exclusions or displaced burdens.
- How does realization of this good vary across relevant beneficiaries and time periods? measurement
- Whose exclusion or burden would change the judgment that the proposed provision of this good is acceptable? boundary
Realization and loss Connects the valued content to observable conditions of attainment, maintenance and impairment.
Realization criteria
Defines what would count as the good being present in the relevant context.
Evidence of realization
Record substantive criteria and indicators, including where indicators may diverge from what is valued.
- What observations would establish that this good is absent, partly realized or realized for the specified beneficiary? measurement
- When could the chosen indicator improve while the good itself fails to improve or deteriorates? boundary
Persistence and impairment
Records whether the good endures and what compromises its continued realization.
Conditions of continuance
Record maintenance dependencies, threats and whether a loss can be repaired for the affected beneficiary.
- What conditions must continue for this good to remain realized, and what evidence supports those dependencies? provenance
- What loss would require restoration, and could later provision restore the same good or only compensate for its absence? action
Plural goods and permissible pursuit Relates the good to other goods and constrains actions taken in its name.
Relations among goods
Records dependencies, conflicts and the basis for comparisons.
Trade-offs and comparability
Record which other goods are supported or compromised and whether comparison or substitution is justified.
- Which other goods does realizing this good enable, depend on or compromise in the specified situation? boundary
- What comparison rule, if any, justifies accepting less of this good for more of another? definition
- Which proposed substitutions remain contested or cannot be represented on a shared scale? boundary
Limits on pursuit
Connects expected benefits to authorized and acceptable interventions.
Justified intervention
Record candidate interventions, their expected contributions and the constraints that govern whether they may proceed.
- Which available action could promote, preserve or restore this good, and what evidence supports its expected contribution? action
- Which applicable rights, obligations, consent requirements or authority limits constrain that action? action
- What uncertainty or potential sacrifice of another good requires deferring action or seeking a further decision? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of good this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of good this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of good this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of good this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of good this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of good this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of good this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of good this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Information and virtual systems
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- INF
- Domain
- INF.KNW
- Other names and narrower kinds
- benevolence
What it is Filled
Good is an evaluative term in religious, ethical and philosophical thought for something regarded as preferred, beneficial or virtuous, especially relative to an alternative, with its meaning and grounds depending on the stated perspective.
In scope
- The particular end, condition or benefit identified as a good
- Who values the good, who benefits and whose perspective governs its assessment
- Reasons for treating the good as intrinsically, instrumentally or constitutively valuable
- Criteria and evidence for its realization, loss or impairment
- Dependencies, conflicts and permissible ways of pursuing the good
Out of scope
- Tradable goods as products, inventory or economic assets
- Complete ethical theories or systems of values
- The full model of the person, community or ecosystem benefiting
- Goals, plans and projects used to pursue the good
- Rules, rights and obligations governing conduct
- Generic quality ratings of objects or services
Why it exists Filled
Enable an AI agent to record what is regarded as a good, for whom and on what grounds, so it can assess its realization and evaluate actions that promote, preserve or compromise it.
Distinguishing features Filled
- A good identifies something valued; a judgment that an object is good evaluates that object against some standard.
- A good can remain valued without anyone adopting a goal to achieve it; a goal records an intended result.
- Identifying something as beneficial to someone does not by itself establish that pursuing it is morally permissible.
- A commodity qualifies under this interpretation only through a stated valued end or benefit; ownership and exchangeability alone do not identify the good.
- An expressed preference is evidence that someone favors something, but its status as a good requires recording the evaluative grounds rather than equating preference with value.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Treat people, their bodies or organs as commodities.
- Present market price as a complete measure of value.
- Present one perspective's account of good as universally accepted.
- Treat a preference or claimed benefit as sufficient justification for harming others.
Only with a human decision
- Resolve consequential conflicts between goods when the decision affects people's rights or welfare.
May
- Explain how a stated religious, ethical or philosophical perspective understands good.
- Compare proposed goods by recording their evaluative grounds, beneficiaries and conflicts.
Moral aspects Filled
- Judgments about good can affect access to essentials and the welfare of people with little power.
- Treating people merely as means to a valued end can violate their dignity.
- Different communities may have legitimate disagreements about what is good and why.
Who is affected
- People who benefit from or bear the costs of pursuing a proposed good.
- Communities whose values inform or are excluded from the assessment.
- Learners interpreting religious, ethical and philosophical claims.
Owners Filled
Steward
No one owns the concept; those recording an evaluation are responsible for identifying its perspective and grounds.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q194112 - registry parent class
- Q211364 - registry parent class
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.good
- Wikidata: Q15290 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15290)
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
- Interpretation of good: Valued end; beneficial condition; constitutive element of flourishing; other specified interpretation; unresolved
- Basis of value: Intrinsic; instrumental; constitutive; mixed; disputed; unspecified
- Evaluative perspective: Links to valuing agents, communities or explicit evaluative frameworks
- Beneficiary: Specified persons, groups, nonhuman entities or future populations; disputed; unspecified
- Realization status: Unassessed; absent; partly realized; realized; impaired; lost; disputed, each relative to stated criteria and context
- Realization indicator: Good-specific quantities or ordinal assessments with an explicit scale, time period and limitations; no common unit presumed
- Relation to another good: Enables; constitutes part of; reinforces; competes with; substitutes for under stated conditions; incomparable; unresolved
Plane INF: no invented physical properties.
Recognition not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
Goodness is an abstract evaluative concept without a distinctive perceptible appearance.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- Clarify a claim about a good by identifying its meaning, evaluative perspective and beneficiary.
- Assess whether the good is realized using explicit criteria and qualified evidence.
- Trace an instrumental good to the further good it is supposed to support.
- Compare proposed actions by their expected effects on the good and on affected beneficiaries.
- Expose conflicts with other goods and limits on acceptable trade-offs.
- Recommend promotion, preservation, restoration or further inquiry within recorded authority and constraints.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Treating one interpretation of good as universal can override legitimate differences in values.
- Confusing moral goodness with personal preference can conceal harmful consequences for others.
- Using an undefined notion of good to justify decisions can undermine accountability.
Standards and interfaces not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
No universal standard, law or official classification defines philosophical or moral goodness across traditions.
Context of use required Filled
- The concept is used in ethics, religion and philosophy to discuss what is beneficial, desirable or virtuous.
- It helps agents compare actions and outcomes while identifying whose interests and which values inform the judgment.
Sources Filled
- OECD Glossary of Statistical Terms: Goods - Statistical definition of goods as physical objects for which a demand exists, over which ownership rights can be established, and whose ownership can be transferred.
- Wikidata item Q15290: good - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Good - general description of the item
Open questions
- Does vr.tr.good denote a valued end or benefit, moral goodness, an evaluative judgment, an economic good or another concept? The registry definition and intended meaning within INF.KNW remain unconfirmed.
- Should this entry represent a kind of good, an individual realization or an attribution that something is good, and which of these belong to neighbouring registry entries?
- Does an existing Vercy world model already cover the intended concept, requiring this entry to link to that model?
- Which researched evaluative perspectives should inform the model, and how should incompatible accounts of intrinsic, instrumental and constitutive value be represented?
- Which realization and comparison criteria can be supported for particular goods without assuming that all goods are measurable or mutually substitutable?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q15290/spec.json