Common good
There are many different takes on "common good." The first distinction that should be made is between common good and collective good. Collective good describes all that is good for all people in a given community. Common good describes a "good" that is shared between all members, or at least most members.
In ethics and political science, to promote the common good means to benefit members of society. Thus, in essence, helping the common good equates helping all people.
However, there is no strict definition of common good for each situation. The good that is common between person A and person B for example may not be the same as between person A and person C. Thus common good is shifting and transient, although there are some themes in today's society that are defined as common goods, no matter if they benefit all people or not, simply because they seem to respond to humanity's current state of morality.
Another take on the "common good" regards it as a utilitarian good, thus falling into the hands of the majority. This view defines the "common good" as "the greatest possible good for the greatest possible number of individuals".
Some assert that promoting the common good is the idealistic goal of democracy, to allow for all voices to be heard, should this be achieved it would be one step closer, to the Utopian society where the common good is maintained.
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