  There is such a property as being a good \(K\) only if \(K\) is a goodness-fixing kind (Thomson 2008, 21). For instance, “knife” is a goodness-fixing kind; thus, there is the property of being a good knife. Goodness need not always be understood in terms of a particular substantive. Things can be good in other respects, as we see from examples such as “good for use in making cheesecake” or “good for Alfred” (Thomson 1997, 278). Thomson calls things that are good in this way “good-modified.” Recognizing ways in which things can be good-modified allows us to evaluate things that we might not otherwise be able to evaluate. There is no such thing as “a good smudge”, full stop, because smudges have no characteristic functions or correctness standards. “Smudge”, according to Thomson, is not a goodness-fixing kind in the way “knife” is. But there might be a smudge that is good for using in a Rorschach test, because “being used in a Rorschach test” is a way that smudges can be good-modified. So that is a way that a smudge can be good (Thomson 2008, 21–22).