Geach’s “Good” and “Bad”, Attributive After All

In “Good and Evil”, P.T. Geach analyzes the nature of the adjectives "good" and "bad". This paper examines the objections raised against Geach’s claim that “good” and “bad” are always attributive and primarily descriptive in nature and shows that the philosophers whose arguments I review, argue against Geach’s claims almost exclusively due to their misinterpretation and misapplication of the examples Geach offers as illustrations of his claims. The paper also examines Geach’s logical distinction and demonstrates that the distinction itself, is based on an adjective’s modifying behavior and not on an adjective’s inferential character. I argue, that once Geach’s logical distinction is explained and defended, and not simply outlined as he does, it is evident that “good” and “bad” are adjectives which are logically attributive only, and as such, their functions are primarily descriptive.