I was thinking a little bit about Stefan Molyneux's UPB (universally preferable behavior), which is his answer to how can we make an universal moral system without God. the logic of UPB seems pretty sound though I don't think it can ever be a complete moral system. it is certainly a very useful part of one. if you want to understand UPB then go to this video
and go to about 33:30.
here is my reflection on UPB as an ethical standard. it would have been nice to have some dialogue with him so that the beatific vision can come ever more into clarity.
UPB is neat but sometimes we have to break it since evil people exist. or can a person be called good if they allow someone to rape a child if they could in fact do something to prevent that evil act? so if we have to break UPB we have to use logic to judge when it is okay to break the rules laid down by UPB. so subjectivity must be part of ethics. reason and goodness should never be separated because it is very dangerous to separate them. if you separate goodness from reason then you can make any reason up as to why you would break the UPB.
why you do what you do matters because what you are is what gives birth to and colors what you do. I don't get my ethics from UPB but rather I get them when I am good and reasonable. so my ethics are taken fundamentally from a personality/state of being pov, even though I accept UPB as valid and it is in fact part of my being. but I still find that UPB alone is not enough due to me having to use logic to come to complex moral decisions, which involves many elements that helps to form my being. logic itself is of the person and thus to exclude the individual person in ethics in an error because there is no such thing as reason without the person who is reason itself or at least reason can not matter without some person that reasons because humans are the ones that act in the world and are the subject that ethics are concerned with. to exclude subjectivity from ethics is a grievous error, probably as big an error as trying to exclude the objective world that we live in.
in the end morality is subjective in the sense that it depends on the person and involves judgement and choice. this makes sense because a person who merely follows the rules/logic is not necessarily good. they could have some other motive for following the rules that goodness expresses i.e. a person might be lead by fear of punishment which could make him follow the rules. in order to have a good moral system it can not come merely from "outside" of yourself. you yourself must become goodness, which is a subjective choice. you yourself must be reasonable. ethics implies wisdom and it implies love. it implies both truth and goodness.
here is my reflection on UPB as an ethical standard. it would have been nice to have some dialogue with him so that the beatific vision can come ever more into clarity.
UPB is neat but sometimes we have to break it since evil people exist. or can a person be called good if they allow someone to rape a child if they could in fact do something to prevent that evil act? so if we have to break UPB we have to use logic to judge when it is okay to break the rules laid down by UPB. so subjectivity must be part of ethics. reason and goodness should never be separated because it is very dangerous to separate them. if you separate goodness from reason then you can make any reason up as to why you would break the UPB.
why you do what you do matters because what you are is what gives birth to and colors what you do. I don't get my ethics from UPB but rather I get them when I am good and reasonable. so my ethics are taken fundamentally from a personality/state of being pov, even though I accept UPB as valid and it is in fact part of my being. but I still find that UPB alone is not enough due to me having to use logic to come to complex moral decisions, which involves many elements that helps to form my being. logic itself is of the person and thus to exclude the individual person in ethics in an error because there is no such thing as reason without the person who is reason itself or at least reason can not matter without some person that reasons because humans are the ones that act in the world and are the subject that ethics are concerned with. to exclude subjectivity from ethics is a grievous error, probably as big an error as trying to exclude the objective world that we live in.
in the end morality is subjective in the sense that it depends on the person and involves judgement and choice. this makes sense because a person who merely follows the rules/logic is not necessarily good. they could have some other motive for following the rules that goodness expresses i.e. a person might be lead by fear of punishment which could make him follow the rules. in order to have a good moral system it can not come merely from "outside" of yourself. you yourself must become goodness, which is a subjective choice. you yourself must be reasonable. ethics implies wisdom and it implies love. it implies both truth and goodness.
