Good and evil in the logic of preference

Abstract

G. H. von Wright’s definition of the concept of good reads: the state of a thing p is good (for a definite subject) when it is preferred by that subject before the state of affairs non-p. This definition implies that when a man sentenced to death has no other choice except between death on the gallows or after tortures and when he chooses the former kind of death, then death by hanging is good for him. A certain way of escaping this consequence is outlined but since it leads to a definition vulnerable to other objections a different definition of the concepts of good and evil in the term of G. H. von Wright’s theory is suggested.