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Such a good is an instrumental good. Goods may be intrinsic goods (“good in themselves”) or instrumental goods (goods that serve as the means for achieving another, usually higher, good). It is the intrinsic good that has escaped definition. The quest for the summum bonum, the ultimate good, that which is good in itself, is sometimes seen as the greatest good in a hierarchy of goods (rationality, for Aristotle), sometimes as the common denominator of all other goods (pleasure, for the hedonist), and, at times, as an almost mystical, religious good (God, for the religious).

Theoretical Considerations 25 The rules (or “maxims,” as Kant calls them) that are derived from such a categorical imperative are largely “negative” rule, and Kant believes that such rules are absolutely binding under all circumstances. Rules like not lying, not murdering–in other words not actively harming another–are rules that (according to Kant) one can always discharge: One can always refrain from doing something. Such rules are called “perfect” rules and, according to Kant, should not conflict with one another.

Justice-based reasoning, it is claimed, operates by applying ethical principles or rules to concrete situations without much bothering about the unique features of each case. Care-based reasoning, on the other hand, approaches problems and cases by allowing the feelings of the persons involved and acting (Kant would say “inclinations”) to guide the way. Whereas Kant basically distrusts inclinations and wishes to build his ethical structure upon a foundation of rationality and of strong (alas, virtually absolute) rules, care ethicists celebrate feelings and eschew principles and rules.