PhilosophyThe BestieBeginner
What Makes an Action Good?, a free philosophy course on Tomo

What Makes an Action Good?

Like Duolingo, but for What Makes an Action Good?. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.

A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The Anatomy of a Good Choice and Living Your Values. It starts from scratch.

11 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Gilly the Glow-worm, the guide who teaches the What Makes an Action Good? course
What Makes an Action Good?
with Gilly the Glow-worm
11
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in What Makes an Action Good?

  • Goodness requires taking initiative to improve a situation
  • Simply avoiding 'bad' or illegal acts is neutral, not necessarily good
  • Active goodness often happens when no one is watching or enforcing a rule
  • The 'Good' often involves a trade-off with self-interest
  • Sacrificing a small personal comfort for a larger collective benefit is a hallmark of moral behavior
  • Whether goodness is recognized as an active pursuit rather than passive compliance
  • The recognition that moral action often requires a personal cost
  • The 'why' behind an action determines its moral value
  • Selfish motives can hollow out the goodness of a helpful act
  • Genuine goodness is rooted in the desire to help, not the desire for a reward
  • Good intentions do not erase the need to take responsibility for accidental harm
  • A moral response involves acknowledging the impact on the other person
  • Repairing the damage is part of the 'good' action, even if the harm was a mistake
  • How intent changes the moral quality of an action
  • The appropriate moral response to well-intended harm
  • Integrity is a habit formed through repetition
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives What Makes an Action Good? the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

Beyond the Rulebook

If a person follows every law simply to avoid a fine, how would we describe that behavior in a moral sense?

Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.

Course map

Where What Makes an Action Good? takes you

Explore the foundations of ethics and learn how to navigate everyday moral choices with clarity and confidence.

  1. 1

    The Anatomy of a Good Choice

    • Spotting the Good in the Wild
    • Three Ways to Measure Goodness
  2. 2

    Living Your Values

    • Navigating Moral Gray Zones
    • Why Goodness Leads to Flourishing

2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Bestie

What Makes an Action Good? is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

Start free

Start What Makes an Action Good? today.

Download Tomo, search What Makes an Action Good?, and play your first lesson in under a minute.