a aa ‘ [= What do we Bex Peterson Editor-in-Chief A s the title might suggest, I’ve been arathoning The Good Place for the past few weeks. If you thought I was going to say that the title suggests I’ve been marathoning Scanlon for the past few weeks, congratulations on paying attention in ethics class! (And here I’ve got to send a shout out to the fantastic Dr. Kira Tomsons of the Douglas College Philosophy and Humanities department, with whom I took as many philosophy classes as I could cram into my schedule. I miss the classes, but I can't say I miss reading Hume or Kant.) The Good Place poses some interesting questions about what it really means to be Room 1020 - 700 Royal Ave. Douglas College New Westminster, BC, V3L 5B2 604-525-3542 Bex Peterson Editor-in-Chief M editor@theotherpress.ca James Moore Layout Manager M layout@theotherpress.ca Katie Czenczek News Editor M news@theotherpress.ca Jessica Berget Opinions Editor M opinions@theotherpress.ca Greg Waldock Web Editor M webeditor@theotherpress.ca Cover by Lauren Kelly Horoscope illustrations by Cara Seccafien a “good person,” a topic I've always found fascinatingly dodgy. There are some classic questions about goodness that are never really going to be solved to anybody’s satisfaction: Does an action that benefits others still count as “good” if it was done with poor intentions? Is there a set of universal morals we can all agree on? Can we decide, unilaterally, that putting pineapple on pizza is ethically indefensible? I used to think “good” and “bad” people didn’t exist, and I still mostly believe that—with some exceptions. I think there are some people where we can put aside the philosophy and thought experiments and just straight up accept that if you do enough evil, you can be categorized as being evil. I think what it really comes down to is that for the most part people aren't inherently bad or inherently good. @ theotherpress.ca © editor@theotherpress.ca ¥ © /theotherpress f/douglasotherpress Caroline Ho Assistant Editor M assistant@theotherpress.ca Lauren Kelly Graphics Manager © graphics@theotherpress.ca Sonam Kaloti Arts Editor © arts@theotherpress.ca Brittney MacDonald Life & Style Editor M lifeandstyle@theotherpress.ca Isabelle Orr Entertainment Editor © humour@theotherpress.ca owe to one another? Good is a choice, and in some cases, a perspective. I think the moment you start thinking of yourself as an inherently good person is the moment you stop trying to be better, and start justifying personal behaviours that could be harming others. Utilitarianism, virtue ethics, natural law, categorical imperative, justice, prima facie duties... these are all theoretical systems for determining what is “right” and what is “wrong”, “moral” and “immoral”, “good” and “bad.” I believe it’s important to ask ourselves what metric we're using to make these judgments, and I know my metric has grown and shifted and changed many, many times throughout my life. Getting back to The Good Place though, the character of Chidi Anagonye provides an extremely relatable cautionary tale. The endless questioning of his own Angela Ho Business Manager Jacey Gibb Distribution Manager Meghan Lin Production Assistant Cara Seccafien IHustrator Tania Arora Staff Reporter Naomi Ambrose, Roshni Riar Staff Writers Billy Bui Staff Photographer Jerrison Oracion Senior Columnist morals and inability to choose any kind of definitive method of ethical reasoning often leaves him paralyzed with doubt, doubt that winds up doing him and others far more harm than good. You don’t have to be a moral philosopher to do good things. I think right now, more than anything, what we owe one another—and to ourselves—is to try to make the world a better, kinder place. (We can start by abolishing the practice of ruining perfectly good pizza with pineapple. Just saying.) Until next issue, Bex Peterson Bex Peterson The Other Press has been Douglas College’s student newspaper since 1976. Since 1978 we have been an autonomous publication, independent of the student union. We are a registered society under the Society Act of British Columbia, governed by an eight-person board of directors appointed by our staff. Our head office is located in the New Westminster campus. The Other Press is published weekly during the fall and winter semesters, and monthly during the summer. We receive our funding from a student levy collected through tutition fees every semester at registration, and from local and national advertising revenue. The Other Press is a member of the Canadian University Press (CUP), a syndicate of student newspapers that includes papers from all across Canada. The Other Press reserves the right to choose what we will publish, and we will not publish material that is hateful, obscene, or condones or promotes illegal activities. Submissions may be edited for clarity and brevity if necessary. All images used are copyright to their respective owners.