Announcing a new science - its name is ETHICS

I understand and agree to your point, but I suspect that you might have missed mine.

Camus had it right.

The only thing of value in all philosophy is whether to commit suicide or not… The rest is just commentary.

You guys try with all your psychological might to avoid the deep psychological work.

The psychology of suicide is zero point purposelessness from the point of the subject… It’s irreducible:

There is no life meaning for me in this context.

Ethics is about meaning making for life.

You guys are still avoiding the answer

I admit I don’t know enough about relativity to comment on it, but I don’t see your point about the Newtonian forces, no. “Force” is just a name assigned to an observable phenomenon. When physical things of big mass pull towards themselves other things, we call this pulling “gravitational force”, no? What’s so non-existent here?

I agree with this though:

That there is no “pulling” (nor pushing).

“pulling” is just another word we use to describe this observable interaction where one object attracts towards itself another object. What exactly is the issue here?

The issue is that there is no direct interaction between two distant objects. In other words, pushing and pulling is an appearance. That’s how I understand it.

Even if that was true, there is no “attracting” going on either.

The objects merely migrate into the more dense region of space. In most circumstances that is the region directly between the two or more mass objects. But such isn’t always true. A dense region of space CAN BE intentionally formed off to one side or even in the opposite direction, causing the objects to not migrate toward each other, but to a different point in space. And it can even be arranged that they migrate away from each other entirely, resulting in “anti-gravity” behavior.

The point is that mass objects are only responding to their immediate surroundings, not to distance objects. Einstein didn’t belief in “spooky action at a distance” from neither Newton nor Bohr. In that regard, he was right.

Exactly.

Sounds to me like our disagreements are mostly of a semantic nature, so whatever.

James here speaks of “consumer science.” Also we have heard of Musicology, The Science of Chess, Alternative Approaches to health and healing (such as The Science of Acupuncture.) Perhaps the word “science” here is being employed in the older Continental sense of a systematic study, including research …as in the original sense of the etymological word Sciencia - the root of the word: science.

In Ethical Adventures {a link to which you will find in the list below} M.C. Katz quotes Kant, who said: “Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.”

Then, in his Preface, Dr. Katz notes:
“What [the concept ‘science’] is meant to be is a search for truth, a way
to increase the amount of useful information in the world, offering
a frame-of-reference for understanding of the scope {in this case, of ethics}
and indicating how useful ethics actually is - and can be even more so - for
living a valuable life.”

Later, on p. 8, the writer - reminding us of some empirical facts - has a character say: " We are social animals. We desire to live together and
to pursue things together. Anything that is important to us we often want to do with others, and we then develop structures and institutions for doing that.

Nearly all societies develop something that could be called a “state” – i.e. a structure of laws, with an authority to proclaim and enforce them. Countries, however, are not essential; they can, and are, being replaced by regional authorities. Also, many of us live by the principles that “One good turn deserves another” (reciprocity); and “What goes around comes around."

James writes: [i]“One can logically and rationally prove ethical principles to those few who can think rationally, but science cannot be used to empirically prove them. Such would be unethical.”

Not necessarily!! Many in high places (of power) today constantly violate the Principles offered in the Kindle book cited in the o.p. of this thread …principles derived by the science - such as Inclusivity, Accountability, Respect for self and others, the Means/Ends Relationship, concern for Human Rights, the Consistency Principle - all of which are merely guidelines, not rules nor laws… so we have now plenty of examples of what not to do. This conduct can be meaningfully contrasted with morally-healthy conduct that those of good character would display, as explained in some depth in the book… In this way we would get the negative and the positive instances to which James, in his role of Philosopher of Science, alludes in the quoted passage.

As Dr. Robert S. Hartman elucidated, science is a set of unordered (or partially ordered) data along with a frame-of-reference [a theory, a model of models] that with the aid of some bridge laws (of interpretation), order and explain the data …thus, as James said, increasing the truth value, or degree of confidence, we have in the formerly chaotic swirl of ideas relative to a topic. When the specific topic is ethics {in the considered analysis of some of us, based upon the findings of the new science, the Science of Ethics} we note lots of chaos - such as the current state of ethical understanding and insight that prevails. Today we see an utter lack of moral clarity; the situation is incongruent, and it is an incoherence. This is so from The White House on down. And we, in the USA, have the best Congress money can buy. Hypocrisy and the corruption are thick and rampant. …the U.S.A. and much of the world is morally sick.

Every proposition and conclusion of science is highly-tentative, is dated and indexed, and is subject to revision when new findings come along. Science is the opposite of dogma. We have nothing to fear from the advancement of science :exclamation:

Your views and comments are welcome !

So what do you think about all this?

Ophthalmology, especially its sub-branch Optometry - like Ethics is a science that is both subjective and objective at the same time.

Science is about what works.

The claim is being made here, {and in Living Successfully,
amazon.com/LIVING-SUCCESSFU … B01NBKS42C
[A Kindle app is necessary to read it…}

is that if you live by the principles offered in this book, then it not only will work in your own life, but also work to benefit the entire human race, in that it will make an ethical world more probable …by the example you present and represent.

That it will help you have a harmonious life is a testable hypothesis. And it is falsifiable; for if you ignore the principles and behave in a contrary way the theory predicts you will have friction and disharmony in your life.

Once a goal is projected it is possible to objectively determine the most effective way of achieving the goal,. It is possible to evaluate how realistic it is, by calculating the probability of that goal being achieved at all.

Gravity still works. And harmony still works.

Life has value. Value is based upon meaning. Every individual wants life to have some meaning. For if not, life is empty, devoid of meaning. When life has no meaning for an individual, he or she is likely to commit suicide, to end life. In an ethical society, one made up of ethical individuals, we can predict that spousal abuse rates, crime rates, suicide rates, and murder rates will be way down. And war will be nearly absent. Statistical studies will confirm this. A society, region or culture with minimal crime and suicide statistics may have earned the right to regard itself as ethical.

In an ethical world people will live in harmony. The opposite of harmony is conflict, chaos, murder, and war. The logical argument being made here is:

  1. The more ethical individuals there are, the nearer we all are to living in an ethical world.

  2. An ethical individual would find life to be meaningful, would evaluate life as having some meaning.

  3. Those who find meaning in life, in living in this world, do not normally commit suicide.

  4. If a state or society (or local region) arranges its policies so that crime rates and suicide rates are close to zero, then it is justifiable to conclude that the society or region is an ethical one.

  5. The more regions of this planet that are ethical, the closer we have come to an ethical world.

  6. What is meaningful to us we speak of as having value.

  7. Some commit suicide slowly by being destructive either to themselves or to others; they spread the opposite of harmony. Their conduct results in chaos and/or confusion. Or they display indifference to the intrinsic value of the human person, in all of its beautiful depth and complexity.

Some do things they will later in life regret – especially if they later develop an awakened, sensitive, educated conscience, for it may then bother them for the remainder of their years. It is best to avoid a guilty conscience in the first place. A person of good character knows this.

He or she will not permit himself to be dominated by, nor intimidated by, a selfish individual. In the long run the unselfish people who practice harmonious human relations will triumph. Harmony still works.

What say you?

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So does anyone here care about the advancement of Ethics, either as

I) a body of knowledge; or

II) as a discipline

or both :question:

and if you do, what are you doing about it :exclamation: :question:

As a service, I shall now announce for those who are interested - and if you read the book cited in the o.p. you will know why this is relevant - the development of a new Ethical Technology, which uses earth-friendly materials for its anode and for its electrolyte, and it is solid-state, with all the advantages that implies: see
news.utexas.edu/2017/02/28/good … technology

Thus the widespread introduction of electric cars can now become a reality.

Connecting the dots…: less air pollution means less illness, less brain-damage, means less stupid conduct, viz., less-immoral conduct, means less chaos, friction and/or needless conflict, means possibly more harmony in this world.

And more harmonious human relations brings us closer to living in an ethical world.

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In the post of March 9th, 2017, the post just-before the previous one, I wrote about the concept “harmony,” arguing that it is an essential factor of ethics.
I also spoke there of chaos; and the following remarks are relevant to that:

One way to cause chaos is to do harm.

Harm is the opposite of harmony.

Therefore, we conclude as a life-guideline the imperative, Do no harm.

This has lots of implications for the setting of policy.

Torture, of course, is then out of the question; and so is violence. Although force is morally permissible according to the findings of the ethical scientists. The scientists in the field of Ethics make a distinction here.

Do you know the difference between “force” and “violence”?

Do you know what it is, as the science understands it? …want to venture a guess?

Yes, ought statements can be analyzed in terms of (testable) is-statements. See pp. 41-45 HERE: hartmaninstitute.org/wp-con … course.pdf

Recall the Euler diagram from a Logic course. Where the two circles intersect, let us speak of that as an “overlap.” If I declare that “Autsider ought to be able to understand the contents of LIVING SUCCESSFULLY” I am affirming that there is an overlap between who Autsider is - and - what being able to understand the contents of LIVING SUCCESSFULLY is.

Autsider [or those who know Autsider perhaps better than he knows himself] will be able to confirm the above proposition, as to whether it is True, False, or Undetermined.

Also see: amazon.com/LIVING-SUCCESSFU … in+C.+Katz

Comments? Questions?

Every day is a torture for me.

If a critic protests that in my previous post the example I gave was not a “moral ought” then how about this illustration instead:

Autsider ought to have a high degree of morality.

This is a claim or an observation that is equivalent (by definition in the science) to this:’

Given who’ Autsider’ is, and given what having a ‘high degree of morality’ means, there is an overlap between the two.

Certainly this usage of ‘ought’ is a moral ought. The latter two sentences are “is” statements. Hence we have shown that a moral-ought is actually a descriptive statement which connotes a prescriptive statement. It often denotes a gap between what is and what might be, but not necessarily. Autsider may already be highly moral; yet one can rationally declare the proposition in the illustration that was offered anyway.

To have a high degree of morality is to possess integrity, authenticity, empathy, aswell as the other marks of a god character. The document Living Successfully: how the new Science of Ethics will benefit you. explains in detail what is entailed in ‘having a good character.’ See op. cit.

Ethicists, that is, scientists of Ethics, give the term “morality” a special meaning specific to the science. This is akin to what happens with the term “force” in Physics. When the layperson to natural science uses the word ‘force,’ he or shes likely is not thinking of the intension “Mass times acceleration” but the Physicist may be alluding to that definition. And a “group” in the science of Mathematics is not a “group” in ordinary common usage. The latter is used in the street more in the sociological sense of a bunch of people. "

“Morality” to the Ethicist is a technical term which connotes authenticity as well as the opposite of hypocrisy and phoneyness. It denotes that you practice what you preach: your observable self corresponds to your ideal self-image, as you gain in ethical insight; that is to say, your behavior (conduct) corresponds to your continuously-improving self-identity.
The scientific theory employs logical symbols, such as when, in they express “morality” as x∈X.
See the document cited in the o.p. for the interpretation of these concepts, as explained in the section What is Morality?"

Review the history of how the known sciences came into being; they gradually evolved from Philosophy.

Philosophy is the “Mother of the sciences.” Philosophy of Mind became the Science of Psychology; Astrology became Astronomy and Cosmology; Natural Philosophy became Physics; the philosophical ideas named “Politics” became Political Science. Cultural philosophy became Anthropology which later became part of the discipline Sociology. The philosophy of curing became the Science of Medicine today with its various branches: Anatomy; Physiology; Ophthalmology; Neurology; etc. So we see that before there was science there was philosophy as its precursor. The sciences were generated by Philosophy. Now it is Ethics turn to begin to emerge from Moral Philosophy - which latter will still have plenty to do.

Ethics was held back as long as its major concern was “action.” Instead it will advance when its orientation is “the moral health of the individual” or “the person of good character.” The challenge for education, life-coaching, and therapy is for each of us to become, and to be, an ethical role model …to set the example of a considerate, empathic human being, one who adds value in a relationship or an interaction with others. …And, as you will note when you peruse the booklet, LIVING SUCCESSFULLY, on Kindle, there is no circularity in the reasoning here.

It is a matter of degree, but some individuals are obviously more considerate and empathic than others. A consensus of their neighbors and peers would judge this to be so. Furthermore, if you experience consideration and kindness shown to you, and you appreciate it as such, you won’t even need confirmation by peers for you will likely intrinsically-value the experience as adding to the quality of your life.

Value is that which adds quality to life. Ethics is about creating value in your interactions with others.

Comments? Questions?

:bulb: …Speaking of that, I just discovered this fascinating new website. It will help us apply Ethics. I signed up. You may consider doing so too:

:arrow_right: - genvnation.com/ * :exclamation: :exclamation: :exclamation:

Comments? Questions?

In our interactions with others we either add nothing to it, or we create value, or we destroy value.

Maybe the way to teach ethics to students in a class on Ethics is to teach about how to create value in our encounters with people. And teach the benefits that will ensue if we commit and devote ourselves to adding value in relationships. Being kind and considerate, and ready to serve; being helpful and giving; being of generous spirit; virtue-finding instead of fault-finding are ways to add value.

Once we make that commitment it is the same as assuming a norm for ourselves, an obligatory norm. We, in effect, resolve to be a decent human being. We would then, when we read what someone wrote (in a paper, a treatise, a blog, or a contribution to a Forum), would look at it constructively, ask of oneself: how can I find some value here? Is there some way I can improve upon this - together with the contributor? How build it out? How upgrade it?

We would have a helpful attitude. The alternative is to pick holes in the effort, to look for weakness in it; to rationalize that “this is a search for truth,” when actually it is destroying value. Fault-finding is prevalent in philosophical circles, but it is not constructive, nor the ethical way to live.

Boost someone up rather than tear them down!

Your comments?
Questions? Analyses?

In the Science of Ethics this is known as: The Principle of Value-Generation. Creating value when you encounter another individual entails going in the direction of Intrinsic value. [size=89][It means heading in the Intrinsic direction of the formula. This requires an explanation, as follows:][/size]

Value science, is the metalanguage for Ethics. The founder of this science is the philosophical genius, Robert S. Hartman. He discovered (not invented) the Dimensions of Value. The three most-basic ones, S, E, and I,. When applied to mental affects, give us:

 S:   Conception 
 E:   Perception 
 I:   Experience.

Think of a sunset, as an illustration. you may conceive of a sunset in your imagination. It’s a mere image. Or you can enumerate the properties, round, yellow-orange, bright, in the West, seeming to sink below the horizon, etc., as what the senses perceive.

But if you ever viewed a sunset on an island off the East Coast of the U.S.A., (as I once did in a kind of ceremonial event with a group of people together, as it slowly sunk out of sight, noted its warm glow, and its enormous size) the experience would be unforgettable.
If asked to describe it, one could go on-and-on about it.

The perceptual features comprise a countable list, but the experiential properties far outnumber them, and are even nondenumerable (uncountable). For the experience is so rich in properties. The more-appropriate number to assign to this is aleph-sub-one: perhaps the power of the continuum. {It is the number of points in a line segment.} In an experience the valuer forms a continuum with what is being valued.

S, E, and I are symbols abbreviating Systemic-value, Extrinsic-value, and Intrinsic-value. The S-values are the Intellectual values; the E-values are the bodily, worldly, every-day, pragmatic, socio-economic values; and the I-values ire inspiration, enthusiasm, integrity, empathy, morality, beauty, truth, liberty and honesty, etc., etc.

Universals are S; Particulars are E; Singulars (uniquenesses) are I.

S: Essence; E: Existence: I: Reality. They are degrees of substance.

. They form a hierarchy with regard to how valuable they are, as values, with I-values being worth the most; E-values far less; and S-values the least …among these three basic values. The formula for it is:
I > E > S. When one I-values an individual, one has entered the field of Ethics. That is how “Ethics” is defined in the system.

Now you have a better understanding of S, E, and I than you might have had before. [For more details, see the first few pages of BASIC ETHICS, which is the third paper cited below. Just click on the link to read it, for an enjoyable experience. It will ‘connect the dots’.]

Comments? Questions?