Notes on Ethics

In the first place, almost all discussions of moral or ethical principles begin in the wrong place. They ~don’t~ begin with our relationships with others, first what must define what is morally right for individuals, then we can determine how those individual moral principle apply socially. You cannot make a moral society with immoral people by any system.

I quote some of my personal notes, which are a prelude to a detailed discussion of specific ethical principles, which I spare you.

Ideals

What purpose, what goal, what objective is it human beings desire to achieve or reach that requires moral values to accomplish?

Values presuppose some goal or purpose, and values are the means of determining what things further the pursuit of that purpose or goal (and are therefore good) and what things inhibit or prevent the pursuit of that purpose (and are therefore bad).

The ultimate purpose of all life is the life itself, but more specifically, the purpose of every living organism is the life of that organism as the kind of organism it is. The ultimate purpose of human life is the life of the individual human as a human, that is, the fulfillment of their nature as human beings. We say, the purpose of your life is your enjoyment of it, but that purpose can only be fulfilled as a human being, as fully human in every way as possible, because that is what the nature of human life requires.

What is a human being, and what is it about human nature that defines fulfillment? It is human potential as determined by those characteristics that are uniquely human.

Every animal eats, for example, but human beings become gourmets.

It is human nature that determines what is possible and necessary to achieve the human ideal, it is those same abilities and necessities that make that ideal achievable. These characteristics of human nature that define the human ideal can be reduced to these four essential aspects of human nature: volition, knowledge, creativity, and enjoyment.

• The ability (and necessity) to choose. A human being can do nothing except by conscious choice. All a human being is or does, his success or failure, his happiness or lack of it, his very life is determined by what he chooses. The necessity to choose cannot be escaped and neither can the consequences of those choices.

• The ability (and necessity) to acquire knowledge and comprehend reality. A human being can make choices only if he knows what choices are available and has some way of knowing what the consequences of those choices are. To act on whim or impulse, without knowing what the result of those acts will be is not choice.

• The ability (and necessity) to create. A human being must create what is required by his nature to live and enjoy his life as a human being. What is required for a human to live and enjoy his life is not provided by nature.

• The ability (and necessity) to enjoy life. Enjoyment is the state of a human being living successfully as a human being. Enjoyment is both the ideal and verification of human life lived successfully. But enjoyment is a generality, a basic principle. The specifics, what each individual will enjoy and what each individual must do to enjoy their life must be discovered by each individual, and it will be different for each individual. The generality is limited, however, by the fact that whatever an individual enjoys it can only be enjoyed as a human being. A human being cannot violate the requirements of human nature and enjoy it. A human being cannot enjoy life without choosing, without learning, and without creating.

A human being cannot enjoy life as a parasite, stealing or mooching from others who produce what his life requires, like the blood-sucker or louse. A human being cannot enjoy life as a pet or a slave of others, because each must discover for themselves what their particular enjoyment of life requires and must pursue it. No other can know what is best for him or can achieve it for him. Human beings cannot enjoy life living like plants, depending on accident or luck, waiting for nature, fortune, or God to provide the things they want and need.

Moral Character

Human enjoyment of life requires a ruthless adherence to one’s moral principles, to choose, to know, to produce, to think for one’s self, to be responsible for one’s choices. This means, no one else’s opinion can either dissuade or convince one to “relax” their standards or doubt the truth they understand.

Certainly one can (an must if they want to learn as much as they can) learn from others. But it must be real learning, that is, coming to truly understand what another is teaching. Learning, in the human sense, is not credulity.

Moral character means doing right, that is, choosing and acting according to moral principles however one feels. No desire, no feeling, and no passion excuses one from doing what one knows is right.

Moral character is primarily a matter of self-discipline. Freedom means free-to-choose. To be free, every thought and every act an individual does must be consciously chosen for a reason. To submit to a passion or desire, to allow one’s behavior to be determined by one’s moods or feelings is to be enslaved by those passions, desires, moods and feelings. Only the moral individual whose behavior is determined by their own conscious rational choice is capable of being free.

No More Surprises

No more accidents. Why does man need a moral code? “Man must choose his actions, values, and goals by the standard of that which is proper to man—in order to achieve, maintain, fulfill and enjoy that ultimate value, that end in itself, which is his own life.” (Ayn Rand, Virtue of Selfishness) But most men do not have a moral code. They have a few eclectic aphorisms, (“Do unto others…”) and some sense of prudence (don’t get caught), but generally, wherever there is no strong sense of fear, guilt, or danger, men live by whim and impulse, with neither thought to consequence or concern for moral principle.

Most of their lives are driven by the accidental (unpredicted, not necessarily unpredictable) consequences of their actions. Women become pregnant and children are born where men and women have never given a moments thought to what it means to bring a new human being into the world or what, if any, moral consequences or obligations such an event entails. They do not consider moral consequences practical. But there are practical consequences, and if they consider these at all, they do not consider them moral.

But, whatever determines your choices is always a moral issue. If your choices are made on the basis of whim and desire, without regard to consequences, that is the expression of the moral view that consequences do not matter to man, that ultimately life is something that happens to you, not something you do, and something you do by choice.

Most men lead lives full of events and consequences they never would have chosen, yet most of the events and consequences are the result of their choices. It is because the choices are not based on moral principles, (or are based on wrong ethical values), that what seem like accidents (the unexpected pregnancy, AIDS, etc.) are the direct result of choices.

Most men lead lives which are, “accidental,” and they spend their lives dealing with accidents, not a rational pursuit of happiness, but a frantic and desperate life of emergencies, unexpected problems, and un-chosen difficulties.

The discovery and embracing of a moral code are the beginning of a free life, a life lived by choice, not out of necessity, a life determined by one’s best rational judgement, not one determined by unexpected events, obligations, and emergencies. (And not one responding to unpredictable and conflicting desires, moods, and passions.)

There will always be things that are unexpected, things no one could have guessed (although, in a general sense, even recognizing this, is a kind of preparation for them). Only those who are in complete control of their own lives, who have a clear moral code for their behavior and choices, who live rationally and in objective control of all they can control can really deal with those few unexpected things, which even become a source of adventure, rather than undesired restrictions on their lives.

True freedom is not possible without a rational moral code and the self-discipline to live by it.