Saturday, November 29, 2008

Objective Morality In A Nutshell

The key ethical steps to a rational world:

(1) The foundation and starting point: Why does man need a code of moral values?
(2) Man’s nature is that of a rational being.
(3) Man has free will, and must choose to think (i.e., reason) in order to survive.
(4) Man is constantly faced with unlimited choices and alternatives, and must have rational values and principles to guide his decisions and actions across the span of his life.
(5) Because man’s life is the source of all values, man’s life must be the standard of value. The objective requirements of human life must be the standard for defining principles of right and wrong.
(6) Actions that promote man’s proper survival (e.g., productiveness, honesty, integrity) are rational and good; actions that thwart man’s survival (e.g., dishonesty, passivity, self-sacrifice) are irrational and evil.
(7) The mind is a property of the individual. Each individual must necessarily take responsibility for his own life—i.e., for his own choice to think and to be guided by his rational understanding and conclusions.
(8) Rational egoism is man’s proper moral code.

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