This is part 1 draft 1 of a paper I recently wrote and I would be interested in hearing what you guys think. Thanks!
Ethics are not opinions. They are not subjective feelings. They do not change from person to person, or from legal structure to legal structure. They are facts which necessarily follow from the basic nature of humanity. Whether one knows or believes them, they are real, and their consequences are real.
"Endurance produces Character, and Character produces Hope." - Romans 5:4
Character can be defined as the resistance to internal or external pressures against acting on one's principles.
Hope is the belief that a better future is possible. Before a person can make a choice, they must first conceive of a preferable future, and believe that actions that they take can move them towards
this.
Without character, a person is constantly being formed by his environment. He lacks continuity of identity. In a way, he does not
exist. He is the output of circumstance, a localized collection of disassociated events. He is shallow, two dimensional. "A man without purpose is capable of any evil, because he is at the mercy of random feelings." - Ayn Rand. If man is part rational and part animal, then the person who does not reason for himself is mere animal. He is an effect and not a cause. He does not think for himself, therefore he cannot speak, listen, or act for himself--a conduit for another's will. There is little reason to form partnerships with such an unpredictable person. Cynicism is to lose faith in systems or people. It stems from random, unpredictable, disingenuous, corrupt, and cruel environments. It is a wasteland without wind, alienating and unconvincing. It provokes existential boredom.
To have character there must be a why that transcends the moment. There must be the belief in absolute, objective, discoverable truths. There must be a reason to value these truths. With this, it is possible to maintain a coherent perspective and l direction throughout changing power dynamics and incentive structures. "A fixed point in a world of turning." To see the truth and to hold to it. To be convinced, and to have conviction. Now there is a person. He exists in both space and time, holding his identity from one moment to the next.
Existing in distinction from the currents around him, pushing back, creating in that wake the form and strength of his mind and will. Existing. "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."
Reason has the ability to discover these truths. Proper reasoning opens the mind to close on the truth. To reason, in its most basic essence, is to tell oneself the truth. Truth is that which corresponds to reality. It is independent of minds. Whether it is unknown or disbelieved, it is still reality. It is not possible for there to be no objective truth, for everything to be the subjective creations of the mind, for the simple reason that the prerequisite facts of the mind and its ability to make subjective judgments must itself be an objective truth. As reason is used, thoughts, feelings, and actions will be judged and processed and come into alignment. They will become coherent, and internally consistent. This will create a strength. The person will be less and less torn, aimless, and insecure. Instead there will be calm, clarity, and a sense of center. This is the state of Integrity.
Once character is formed, it is possible to reasonably expect a person to hold to his principles, that is to be himself, in the future. When one can know what to expect, one can plan in one's own best interest. One can invest. One can enter into joint ventures that
take time and effort, that are complex, precious, and fragile. It is possible to entrust oneself, to expose vulnerabilities, to explore,
share wisdom, and mend. It is possible to shore up weaknesses as they arise. To create synergistic bonds. It is possible to befriend. These are the prerequisites for a relationship--because the person thinks, and asserts, and can be depended upon to act as expected, and to not betray those expectations.
With these possibilities comes hope. The knowledge that the character of those around you will hold is wind in the sails, so that you can direct yourself in these waters. It is to enlarge the world.
But not all character is created equal. We see that reason is the means to grasp truths that transcend the here and now. Good reason will encompass all relevant truths. As I am aware of my own being, my needs and desires, I can also project what my future self's needs will be. If I am an agent--a being with the natural right to live as myself, to define myself, and to direct myself, that is, to live--then for what reason would other people not naturally have the same rights as I do, given that they are of the same basic nature as me? And for what reason would their future selves not have the same importance
that mine does? No rational person (non-animal) can give themselves rights and not others with no relevant differentiating factor. And so the nature of ethics is such that it is universal, applying equally to each being who possesses the qualifying factors. "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Empathy is a valuable tool for practicing the universal ethic. Empathy is simply to attempt to tell oneself the truth about the internal lives of others.
Perhaps the nihilist will object, if they care to do so, and suggest that we cannot know if there is meaning in ourselves, in others, or in anything at all. Granting this for the sake of argument, we are left with two options: there is no meaning in life, or there is meaning. If there is no meaning, then we lose nothing to assume that there is. But if there is meaning, then we may do wrong if we assume that there isn't. Therefore, without clear evidence to the contrary, it is ethically necessary to act under the assumption that there is meaning to life and there are such things as ethics. Now we may resume our efforts in differentiating what these may be.
Character is characterized by these things: telling oneself the truth, directing oneself, and acting taking into account both the future and others.
As one takes into account others, naturally the good that you hope to see in them is fundamentally the same for them as for you--that is that they tell themselves the truth and direct themselves. And this is the process of maturation: we are born dependents, we strive to be independents, then we strive to be depended upon, the purpose of which
is to help our dependents become independent themselves, and so continue the cycle. It is as if we are climbing out of a great pit, being helped along the way, and as we reach the top, or at least a place higher than another, we may reach down and pull them up as well. A computer was once programmed to play a game with a simple object in mind, to play the game as many times as possible. It was given a ball that tended to succumb to gravity, and it taught itself how to keep it up. This was the defining key to it's intelligence: always play in such a way that you leave yourself with the maximum amount of options. This is what humanity is doing for each other. We break our chains and throw off our limitations, with the only exception being that we do not do so at the expense of one of our own. To act without character is to cut off options, to create dead ends, to close off life. "Civilization is the process of setting man free from men." - Ayn Rand.
"Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?" - Isaiah 58:6
And so we hold a high and noble view of each person beside us, with deep appreciation for their personal tastes and passions, opinions and motives, their individuality. We cherish *them*. When
they succeed, we celebrate, whether we are ever to benefit from it or not.
And that’s debatable, isn’t it?