How it all makes sense

Greetings, Karpal
Thank you for carrying on the dialogue.

You brought an ironic smile to my face when you told me to go out and get involved in a protest. I spent much of my teen-age years, in my twenties, and early thirties doing just that!

Yours truly here was active with the War Resisters League, and with The American Friends Service Committee. As a Conscientious Objector to War, I did time in a federal detention facility. Then, I was very active in The Civil Rights Movement. I sat-in at lunch counters; opened up public swimming pools; helped remove the bar behind which people of color were expected to sit in movie-houses …in St. Louis and in Washington, D.C. I, along with a culturally-mixed group of youths, volunteered to paint rooms in apartments of poverty-stricken families.

As you can tell, this future professor of moral philosophy was quite an activist. …Did plenty of mediating between bigots and people of color. It worked out pretty well in gaining voting rights, but there’s still a l o n g way to go!!
These days, as President of the Board of Directors of a Condo Association, I often mediate disputes. I assume – for no pay - responsibility.

How about you, Karpal?

You’ve come to know some of my core values: I believe that (conscious) human life is valuable. ) I believe in Democracy rather than oligarchy, kleptocracy, or authoritarianism. I believe in sharing, and exchanging favors. I recommend cooperation to achieve some noble aim. I believe in maintaining a serene and peaceful attitude, all the while struggling to make the world better. Can we agree on any values? Do we share any common ground?

That last part is true. In missionary circles they say they are out “to convert the heathens.” I am not out to do that :exclamation:
If only you had read further, you would have come upon the sections of text where I explain how Ethics will make its impact on the world, and will gain prestige, and its ideas may spread. I talk about Ethical technologies, and explain what they are. The theory recommends improved design, and technical upgrades, in both physical and social inventions: improved methods of education and of therapy, for example. Those new methods would incorporate some concepts of scientific Ethics. {Most people don’t know the math of Circuit Theory, nor the physics of electron transmission, but they know how to snap on a light-switch. That is how science has its impact. The engineers devise technologies that make people’s life more comfortable. So they have a respect for science.

The Nazis organized evil: they put it on index cards, as experiments to try out. For example, a card might have written on it the following: pull a dissenter’s fingernails out with a pair of pliers; then see if he becomes more loyal to the Party, to Hitler and his officials. A Nazi doctor, a psychopath, would see that and say to himself “I’ve got to try that and see what happens!”

The philosopher, Robert S. Hartman, one of those dissenters to what he noticed was going on in his native country, Germany, (and who was smuggled out of his country by the underground) said to himself, “Why not organize goodness? Firstly, though, I’ll have to exactly define what ‘good’ is, so we’ll know what we’re doing.” He then proceeded to work out a Formal Axiology in which “good” is a well-defined term. This he accomplished by 1975.

Today, we see both on the internet and in the streets many movements for good. There are good-cause sites - which for example propose that we make every sort of corruption a crime – or that we salvage and restore the environment. Or that we encourage the formation of worker-owned businesses. Or that we urgently advocate for more gun safety, for the licensing and registration of gun ownership (just as we have currently for automobiles.) There are nonprofit organizations devoted to getting out the vote, to increasing voter participation. There are mobilizations devoted to apprenticeship programs; and to better safety conditions for workers. Etc., etc. To that extent Dr. Hartman’s dream has come true. He died in 1973 but his work lives on.

What say you? Is it a good idea to organize goodness? How can it be done better?

A historian, Joanne Freeman, wrote a book titled Affair of Honor, in which she describes in some detail all the rituals connected with the practice of dueling. The story is specifically about the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

The fact that dueling is no longer fashionable in the Untied States shows that moral progress is possible. If we have evolved from that barbaric practice, as well as the fact that congresspeople do not violently cane each other any longer (beat one another viciously with a cane), also indicates that moral and ethical evolution does occur - and can occur again - if we work at it.

What do you think? Is progress possible in the moral field? Will we have leaders some day who are devoted to creating value? Can each of us be such a leader? Let’s hear your views on the ethical issues of our time :exclamation:

As I await your feedback, and your responses to any of the concepts, ideas, or issues raised in the posts above, I would call your attention to a better writer than I am. He is a great living mind and a deep philosopher. His name is David Korten. He writes articles for Yes Magazine. Here is a quote from his home page:

—David Korten

Once you read one of his articles you will understand why he is worth recommending to any of your friends who may have the intellect to appreciate the wisdom. See how it all makes such profound sense !

Read David’s essays and editorials in YES Magazine.
Especially see, and study, this one:
8 Essential Steps to Radically Transform Our Economy

You will find the eight ethical, action-oriented, principles as the third link down - under the caption What’s New - here: http://davidkorten.org

Let us know, by a post here at this Forum site, what you thought of his principles to live by. Do you see the relevance of his reflective thinking for the Ethical Theory being offered in the selections found in the Signature below?

Shall I add his eight Principles to the list of Moral Principles found in The Structure of Ethics booklet cited below?

Speaking of that little treatise, The Structure of Ethics, on page 26, in the 2nd paragraph, you will find an explanation of how to become all you are capable of becoming.

Also on that page, in the 3rd paragraph, you will find a discussion of the unique definition being offered for the term “morality.” It explains how this definition follows from the more basic one, the definition of “value…” This is fitting, since “morality” is synonymous with “moral value.”

Something has value if it exemplifies its concept. That is, if its properties correspond to some degree with the intension of its concept. [size=87]{The intension, or description, is a set of attributes. Attributes are names of properties.}[/size] Logicians would understand this.

More popularly phrased, anything has value if it is - even partially - what it is supposed to be.
If the features or qualities of x live up to the purpose or intention of x, then we say of x that it has value, or is a value. Many people recognize a value when they see one. The concept of value is basic to the study of axiology. And Formal Axiology is the meta-language for scientific Ethics

Yes, it all makes sense if one puts in the prerequisite study to comprehend and grasp the big picture …the web of the universe …how all relates to all.

Now that Ethics is systematic, and has empirical data to back it up, it can be taught to children in the fourth or fifth grades.

What do you have to say? Where do you stand?

As we want it all to make sense we look to nature.

What can nature teach us? Let’s explore this together.

As we look at nature the main thing we see is diversity. Nature has produced millions and millions of different species. And even these are experiments: some lay their eggs in a womb, some on the ground to be sat upon, some in a pocket in the abdominal region. Some, as soon as they mate, sever the throat of the male who fertilized them, and the male spider puts up with this. Some hear with their tongue instead of with ears. Etc. Etc.

What lesson is there for us humans in all this diversity? What can we learn from it?

I’d like to hear your views on the matter?
What do you think?

As I consider and ponder the question: “What can we learn from the diversity in nature?” here is my view.

Nature engages in trial-and-error experimentation. To come out a winner in this project is to adapt. If we observe carefully we note an enormous variety of species created and/or evolved. Those that adapt survive and flourish, those that don’t head toward extinction. Hundreds and thousands of species have gone extinct. Could the human species be heading toward extinction?

You bet it could! Why? Due to the man-made global disaster and devastation euphemistically known as The Climate Crisis.

Whether it will be through the pressure of more climate-refugees; or because of the cost of fires and floods and wind damage; or because we can’t bear the extreme heat conditions that are coming – correction: that are already here for Greenland, where its glaciers are rapidly melting – whether it is any one of these or a combination of several, we will pay for attacking Mother Nature. The expense alone for air conditioning as we attempt to keep cool could impoverish us. The warming of our oceans is causing more intense, and more frequent, severe hurricanes.

All of this is avoidable if we pull carbon out of our atmosphere, if we quickly plant more trees, if we stop cutting down the Amazon Forest. It would help greatly too if we switch to electric cars, if we become vegetarians, if we remodel building to conserve energy, if we have a massive drive to convert over to clean, green renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar, tidal, and geothermal, if we develop and make widely available the batteries to store the power. These batteries have already been invented; we need the mass-production of them.

Let’s get busy !!! Let’s prevent our near-extinction.

Let’s urgently develop a problem-solving attitude.

  1. Face up to the actual situation.
  2. Define more-and-more-exactly the problem.
  3. Cooperate on getting to the goal, on working together.

Quite a bit is already known about project management; and about starting with the goal and in our imagination figuring out the small steps, working backward from the goal, spelling out the steps that lead up to it; then going forward together to implement these steps. We work out the the most-efficient Critical Path. We at least re-join, as a very first step, The Paris Climate Accords; and we support the efforts and offer leadership as a role-model.

So – what are we waiting for? Let’s make the human species a winner!
Let’s adapt by evolving further in the direction indicated in the writings linked to in the Signature below. Let’s become Ethical.

Sure! Just as technology overcomes understanding it’s useful derivitive, humanity will misunderstand the political economic basis of it’s effect on survival to prevent extinction

The ethical relativity that has risen out of moral absolutism. enables unwarranted short gutted adaptations,
which are constructed to disguise short term gaines which dispense with the sensible distribution and allocation of values.
There really is no amount of quality time by which to arrive at utilization of natural energy to transportation , and meat production, for these are the main culprits.
So solving these can enable hands on tools by which the sensible can adapt a general sense of apathy, of those, whose terrors of diminished short gained profits , are more threatening then the thought of socially perceived panic, a generation or such in the future.
The economic social short cutter fear of diminishing returns is down to the catastrophic wire of losing the cutting edge of a world system that does not adhere and accept the very factoring in of this fear as an incentive.

The feedback inversely effects the gap which grows at increasing rates, as this incentive fails to produce at an appropriate rate, to transact value, and this is why the powers to be are adamant and resentful to the actions if the Federal Reserve.

The U.S. Fed’s manipulation of interest rates is akin to what the Chinese are doing fractionally, by adjusting the value of their current pur having power, and Trump’s fight with it is cintradicorily political, inasmuch that The Federal Reserve serves primarily international gained over national ones, as it was not granted legimate institutional entity, in the first place.

It is probably due to a distrust of the Eastern Empire , China, who have the gaul to operate both political systems simultaneously , perhaps compensationally, to offset the unilateralism of the Western Empire, the U.S…

Hi, Meno

Thanks for clearing up any misunderstanding people may have had about the political economic basis.

This is what political social terrorism looks like.
When did terrorism become ethical?
As soon as it became politically expedient - “give us ALL authority over your entire life and demand it from everyone otherwise YOU are a BAD person and the BOOGIE MAN is going to get us all!”.

When and where and by whom was it ever not used and considered ethical by them?

Terrorism did not become ethical.
How is encouraging people to develop a problem-solving attitude “terrorism”?

How is writing a blog with the view of heightening awareness that future generations are likely going to be uncomfortable due to a climate crisis; and claiming that extreme climate events are costly here and now; how is that “terrorism”?

What will cause the unnecessary discomfort? The man-made attack on our environment, the global disaster and devastation known as “Climate Change.” This is due to the Greenhouse Effect: too much Carbon in the atmosphere. It is causing glaciers to melt in the Arctic and Antarctic. It is hurting the habitat of polar bears and artic seals. The forest fires that burn down homes proves costly. Etc.

These are facts. If one feels terrorized by hearing the truth that is his problem. I gave a call to action. I recommended we study Ethics. I even proposed that we become more ethical. If that is “terrorism,” then the writer is guilty.

How do (some of) the rest of you 10,000 readers feel about this? How do you who have actually read and studied in full one of the essays in the Signature think about these matters?
Speak up !
Surely you also have an opinion…

Then why are you preaching it? I thought you promoted ethics.

It is also called “Scare tactics” although when applied to the entire population, it is literally political social terrorism used to establish political power over societies (just ask the Muslims).

Promoting a false alarm to an entire population, especially when creating an incident to embolden the idea, is what terrorism is.

The problem, obviously, is that you drank the koolaid. And now you serve to spread the fear. That is a far cry from being ethical.

Show him how it’s koolaid, otherwise it will just seem like you slapped him for no reason. Generally terrorist know they want people to be afraid and not so that they do things that are good for them. So, show him that global warming is a hoax. Start a thread or do it here.

Normally that would be good advice. But in this case, due to the extreme degree of social deception and manipulation that has overtaken the West, proving any of their hoaxes would be like proving that there is no meteor headed toward Earth to destroy it. Unless you have your own telescope, you cannot know how much of a lie you have been told.

Everyone has their bubble of belief. Take care who it is that is forming it. Consider an alternative. There is actually zero evidence, scientific or otherwise, that the climate is at risk by human endeavors. And even if there was, China, Russia, and the US liberal socialist democrats couldn’t care less. To them it is all about and only about the power to dictate without fear of refutation. That means that who ever accepts the narrative is merely the first to die out.

Make people more confused, tell them a scary story, and then watch them run to you for salvation. It isn’t exactly a new formula. It is just bigger this time.

Every 10 years or so, mainstream media espouses the same story about how scientists predict the end of the world for one reason or another. And when nothing happens, they just do it again and again. To those actually paying any attention, it is a “cry wolf” and “the sky is falling” story wrapped up in one. But with each effort they gain a little more power.

Greetings, Karpel

He can’t. He can’t because the Climate Crisis is not a hoax. The world’s leading climatologists have warned us all that if the atmosphere gets filled with a little more Carbon Dioxide the crisis situation will be irreversible. I am just passing on what I learned from those scientists who specialize in studying climate.

It all makes sense unless one is dealing with a cultist, a follower of Jim Jones, or of Donald Trump. Then none of it makes sense, for people find that it is nearly impossible to communicate rationally with a supporter of Donald Trump. You can tell who they are because they engage in the defense mechanism which psychologists have named: Projection.

For those not familiar with the psychological concept “projection,” I will add this:

The Encyclopedia Brittanica informs us that

As an example, if the one with such feelings believes (or even, deep-down, suspects) he or she may “have drunk some koolaid” then that party will accuse you of it. And then perceive it as a threat coming from you.

A study of Ethics helps us understand these mechanisms and frailties of the human being. It sensitizes us to quickly notice when something is not quite right, morally speaking. It encourages us not to be judgmental, but instead to forgive, and to be humble. Everyone of us can be wrong.

That too is why all the findings of the Unified Theory of Ethics are highly tentative, and subject to upgrading when something better comes along. As you read these selections linked to below keep that in mind.
If you know of better ethical theory be sure to let us know. Share your insight with us, please.

But then there’s no reason to bring it up. Why thrust it at him`?

.

Thanks for your support, K.T.

Here is a video which many of you may find interesting. It is an interview of an author who had just released a book on the connections between happiness, well-being, and government:

charlierose.com/videos/15981

Check it out

As you know, “happiness” is a concept relevant to Ethics; as is also “well-being.” And “good government” is an idea relevant to Social Ethics - which is one of the branches of Ethics.

Readers: Your views on any of these topics are quite welcome :exclamation:

Why bring up the idea that someone is spreading terrorism and a particular type of terrorism that carries with it extremely dangerous consequences (total loss of political freedoms for all time)?

Gee, let me think. Why do we care if someone yells “FIRE” in a crowded theater?

I wonder if you would have objected to the rumor that Mohamed had ascended the mountain. Think about the consequences of that rumor.