Humans are animals. They are eating, sleeping, fucking, pissing, shitting beings. Their animal nature is never fully transcended. It is always present at the base.

A good human is more than a base animal however. Humans have a whole bunch of add-ons. They have morality, they have talent and intelligence, they have life-plans and perspective and they make agreements.

The problem with the add-ons however is that they are dispensable. The animal nature short of death is not. I would define a good human as one rich in add-ons.

The add-ons are never to the exclusion of the animal nature because the animal nature can’t be suspended. The issue is not whether one behaves like an animal: selfish, unreflective, lacking in morality et al. Humans are these things and are ultimately always these things. These are the givens. The question is what else are they? How far does their morality go when it comes to influencing actions? How well integrated is their moral intelligence when they make decisions about which way to go? How quickly will they dump their high-flown ethics under pressure and fall back into animal behaviour?

In my experience the add-ons are fragile and easily aborted. A pressing imperative would be how to best make these add-ons deeper seated rather than have them always at the mercy of the animal nature. Maybe not possible.