True goodness cannot be solely equated with nobility, utility, or purity.
These frameworks, although tempting, create vulnerabilities that are exploited: simplifying goodness into a single metric provides a means for elites to reinforce capitalism (economic value) and submission (moral justification).
Goodness as usefulness is a typical reduction where utility reduces morality to transactional value. Purity, meanwhile, fosters exclusionary sanctimony. And nobility is a trait that is both mythic, with its mix of cruelty and mercy, folly and wisdom, yet is historically rooted in familial nepotism, despite attempts at redefinition.
None of these fully captures the messy reality of ethical life. Consider one who pays a bribe to save a family: neither value is added nor purity preserved, yet the act resonates as "good" or "right."
Goodness resists rigid categorization; it thrives in the gray areas where rigid moral systems collapse under the complexity of real-world situations.