Before we get in, I just wanted to say, this book is a mess 🤦🏻‍♂️
It’s been a long time since this project has been worked on. Nonetheless, it’s important to document the highs and lows, if this is to be an open project. Thank you for reading.

Chapter 2: Defining Righteousness

What is righteousness? Righteousness, in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, March 1, 2023, has a definition of “Morally right or justifiable.” Many dictionaries share a definition similar to this. Something that is morally right or justifiable would be considered good, in most, if not all, cases. Since producing something “good” is considered morally right or justifiable, righteousness must be the production of good, with the most righteous thing one can do being to produce the most amount of good possible. This leads to the questions, what is “good”? and how does one produce the most amount of it possible?

It might initially seem ridiculous to say “good” is a resource that furthers an individual’s goals in any given system. Yet, think of any use of the word good, whether it be a comment on the heightened quality of something “He’s a good runner,” “A good lie,” the proficiency with which something is done “My mother could never cook this good,” a moral commentary “Displaying good conduct,” or a value assessment “Knowledge is good.” There is a distinction between the linguistic use of the word and the values that must be fulfilled to appropriately use the word. There is always a system that each use of the word “good” exists in, and it could not be used outside of one. How would you say something is good if there is no good or bad, if everything were just neutral? For there to be a good, there must always be a bad, if not in existence then at least in theory.