Ask Lemmy

I think the basis of morality should be if it helps, it's good, if it hurts, it's bad. I realize there are still a lot of situations without easy answers but that's a good starting point. Better than it's good or bad because the rules say so.

My ethos boils down to…

1. The Golden Rule: Your rights end where other’s rights begin, and vice versa. 
2. Natural Rights: Any action or inaction, thought, or word, spoken or written, that does not cross the line of the Golden Rule is a natural right.
3. Ethics: All ethics are founded upon, and entirely dependent upon, points 1 & 2.
4. Morality Is Unethical: Morality, allowing for arbitrary precepts, is inherently unethical. 
5. Effort: Strive to live ethically.
6. Inaction is Action: Inaction is, itself, an action. If your inaction results (even indirectly) in someone’s natural rights being infringed, your inaction is unethical.
7. Consideration: Actions often have cascading, indirect consequences, and you bear full responsibility for them. Therefore, failure to consider the indirect consequences of your (in)actions is also unethical.
8. Graciousness: Treat others the way they wish to be treated. Recognize the dividends that gracious behavior has on preserving the natural rights of both yourself and others.
9. Defend the Social Contract: Ethical behavior is a contract between individuals. Aggressors and instigators who violate that contract are not subject to its protections. As such, adherents are obliged to defend both themselves and others from such infringements to preserve the greater social stability.
10. Imperfection: Acknowledge that no body, no thing, and no system is perfect. Not you, not others, not nature, not these precepts. Mistakes are inevitable, it is the effort and intention that matters. Accept and treasure imperfection, and be faithful to the spirit rather than the letter.

Do whatever you want, as long as it doesn't harm others.

Stoic and Buddhist philosophy. No religious metaphysical stuff like gods, spirits or reincarnation.

Everyone here is saying "don't be a dick". That is not sufficient. That just makes you middling, not good. To be good, you must also stop people who ARE being dicks.

Be the person Captain Picard would want you to be.

Some of my moral principles

• Treat others how you think they would want to be treated, but not at all costs.

• You don't have to like everyone, and not everyone has to like you. Although, being liked by others generally leads to having a better life.

• Avoid lying or "distorting the truth". But, sometimes lying is necessary, like to keep a friend's secret.

Some of my existential thoughts

• There are no permanent consequences other than death (I do not believe in an afterlife, although I find the concept interesting). There are no rules to follow, just temporary consequences you may have to deal with. You can make up your own rules and follow them, or not follow them.

• Perception is just a tool used by your brain (a small part of the universe) to process the chaos that is the universe. A similar universe could be described by a very complex particle simulation. That's really cool.

Any morale principle must to be able to be universally applied to be valid. This translate in not asking for others what I won't do myself. And judging hardly those who ask for rules that don't apply to themselves.

That simple principle can construct a lot if you develop it.

Don't be a dick. Try to stay out of the kinds of trouble that cause extra paperwork.

I have a set of values:

• Be social
• Seek autonomy
• Give solidarity
• Live in community
• Be healthy
• Have a clean home
• Work is to support other values, it's not a value itself

And so on...

The choice i make is the one that aligns best with my values. If i have time to think that is. Otherwise my subconscious picks it's own weights.

There's a hierarchy to the values but they change in substance and position over time. That's by design. Humans grow and change.

Circularity and contradiction? That's fine. As long as it's aligned with my values I know I'm unlikely to regret it.

if there is meaning to your choices, except that which you assign to it, you cannot know it. do as you please, do what feels right or don't. accepting everything may not lead to happiness, but, other than the necessary mental faculties, it is the only requirement for contentment.

Golden Mean - a famous philosphy by Aristotle has been really been big part of my adult life. It's just incredibly handy and applicable to any situation.

Aristotle's Golden Mean is the idea that virtue lies between two extremes - excess and deficiency.

We even see this idea expressed in contemporary sciences and sociology concepts like economic diminishing returns etc. and it really applies to everything. The best parts of life are trully in the middle and if you believe in only one life focusing on extremes is unlikely to get you anywhere interesting unless you're very lucky/unlucky.

I really recommend "How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question" by Michael Schur who is one of the creators of The Good Place and he evaluates many popular ethics and world model views from a contemporary point of view and its really well done if you're interested in practical ethics.

Don't

I'm going to die.

That's it. There's not much I'm really certain of, but I'm pretty damn certain that I'm going to die.

So I ask myself - how do I want to live my life in light of this fact?

Don't be a cunt to...

... Yourself ... Others ... people in need

But...

... Not bring yourself in danger ... Not Bring Others in danger ... Not let people bully, use, hurt etc. you.

your*

Dont break the weekend safety brief.

• Do not add to the population
• Do not subtract from the population
• Do not end up in the newspaper, hospital or jail. -- If you do end up in jail, establish dominance quickly.

Obviosuly this a a comedic response but it covers most of the bases.

Pushing 4 decades, and the older I get the more I try to live by a philosophy of: be the person you wish you had when you were in their shoes.

Biggest thing is school right now: I did the college thing a bit a long time ago, struggled academically and financially, joined the military instead, separated, and now I'm back for round 2 using the GI Bill. I try to generate as many resources for my classmates as possible, run study groups, host group chats, send out reminders... The VA gives me a stipend for supplies each semester, which I'll use in it's entirety and give those supplies to the class. At clinicals (on-the-job education - nursing school) I've noticed a few students don't eat cuz weren't able to pack a lunch and hospital cafeteria food is WAY expensive for the average broke-ass college student, so I'll cover the odd meal and tell em to just pay it forward once they get their RN. Shit like that. Kinda feels like I have 50 sons and daughters lol. But I remember my first attempt at college and how overwhelming everything felt... idk if having a 'me' would have made any difference in the outcome of round 1 - can't make the horse drink and all - but if I can hook these kids up with an easier ride, then fuck yeah I'll do what I can!

I try to apply that kind of approach to pretty much any context - be it school, work, or just random encounters with people.

Feels good to be helpful.

A good starting place is considering what society would look like if everyone did whatever thing.

Everyone steals - doesn't work

Everyone murders - dosen't work

ect.

Another approach is the Terry Pratchett argument that everything boils down to just not treating people like things.

1. Accept the things you can't change, and improve the things you can change. I disagree with the classical stoics on their emphasis on individual action and think that these principles can and should be applied on a societal level.

2. Mind your own business. If someone is doing something that doesn't have any real impact on your life or the lives of people you care about, ignore it. If someone is gay or trans that doesn't impact you at all. If someone has weird religious beliefs, let them believe them as long as they're not hurting anyone.

3. The supernatural should be ignored for society level decisions because it cannot be proven and hasn't been demonstrated. If someone wants to go to a psychic or astrologer for personal decisions I disagree with that but that's on them.

4. Everyone has a god they worship. It may not be Jesus or Allah, but it may be money, a sport team, or maybe a musical band. Ritual and community are things that make us feel good. Coming together with a group of people for a common cause to enjoy something together is built into our psychology. The problem of replacing religion with bands and sports teams is that it comes with the fun parts of religion without the discussion of morality or urging to do good that religion can bring. You don't see Kansas City Chiefs fans giving 10% of their income to the poor, for example. My ideal world would have secular temples to Reason where people come together to sing and discuss philosophy and work together for a common good. This one is weirder than the others and I won't be mad if anyone thinks this is absurd. I just think that we have rejected religion without having a satisfactory replacement for the good things it provides.

• don't be an asshole
• everything is allowed as long as nobody is getting hurt
• act when you see something wrong
• when you are able to help do so
• in all other cases mind your own business

Pee when you have the chance.

There is no such thing as objective morality. Being moral is a matter of will and character—consciously choosing what kind of person you want to be. I want to be the kind of person that brings pleasure into the world, and so I am a utilitarian.

Edit: And I'm not saying that I am fulfilling that adequately at all. Any coherent moral stance usually has implications which are "undesirable". If I were truly utilitarian, I should probably be donating money to the global south, and so should anyone else who claims to be moral.

Leave a better world behind than you entered (to the extent you are able to as an individual).

Never drink alcohol alone.

That doesn’t save me from bad environment, but it prevents a Huge otherwise potential risk

Be kind.

In the immortal words of J.

"Don't start nothin', won't be nothin'."

Don't be a dick.

Don't be a dick.

Honesty, fairness, integrity.

I don’t lie - ever. Not even white lies. I might not always say what I think, but I never say something I know to be untrue.

I treat others the way I’d want to be treated myself. Even when it comes to decisions where no one else is directly involved, I ask myself: Would the world be better or worse if everyone acted like this? If the answer is worse, I don’t do it.

Don't be a hypocrite. I won’t criticize others for something I’m guilty of myself - which is probably why you rarely hear me criticizing anyone at all.

Also, I don't believe in free will - as in the ability to have done otherwise. That's the other reason I don't blame people for their actions. This is something that just overall plays a huge factor in how I approach life. There are many things I see completely differently than most other people - including myself.

A related quote: “It’s not a principle if it’s not costing you anything.”

I try to live my life happily while causing the least negative impact for others.

From an old Irish friend I've known for many years

Whatever you do in life, no matter the situation or circumstances ..... always be kind

This is one of the biggest problems going on right now. That people don't have a knowledge of their own morality, not in any tangible, processed way. People resort to following a person who they believe has the morality they seek, but their own decisions are actually based on a combo of feelings and whatever dogma they may have with no real analysis or improvement being done with any consistency. It would fix a hell of a lot of problems if your average person was breaking down the implications of their own morality and developing a defensible philosophical position. For most I observe that is farther than the average person is willing to parse. It seems that this has led many to base essentially their entire philosophy of right vs wrong (as far as they can actually explain it without just saying "God") on a series of impactful sounding, but ultimately hollow, sound bites or snappy retorts that don't have any actual substance.

Logic is the wrong tool for ethics. In formal logic, you can only assign values like true or false to something called "descriptive statements". These are statements of fact, that can be observed.

Morality deals with "prescriptive" statements. Unobservable and unstable statements about how the world ought to be.

Logic breaks down because it's impossible to argue for something that should be using only facts about how thing are.

The prescriptive statement "it's wrong to harm" relies on the prescriptive statement "harm is bad". Their is no bottom to it.