PWIP 41

Ethics Economics

Objects have different values across domains which are weighted by importance, or something like that. They are objective, functional, universal, collectivistic, individualistic, physical, personal, psychological, aesthetic, and subjective domains. There’s a range of actions an agent can choose from that are within ethics, which is from perfect to good enough. Out of all possible objects appropriate ones are chosen and compared. The generation of ethics is dependent on what resources it has to work with.

Hopefully, I’ve pointed at some concepts I believe are part of ethics. The objective domain contains these things but attempts to deal with utilitarian maths in a practical way. Objects have various values and knowing which has the highest objective value at any given time depends on the relationship between values. One would need to put a value on all aspects of one’s life. Some values aren’t concerned with ethics, while others are, they all have an impact on ethics nonetheless. They appear in one another and interfere with each other. The objective value contained by an object relates to its high impact on helping others. It takes some intelligence to know what set of objects is virtuous at any given moment.

The second meaningful domain appears to be functionality. It has the next highest weight because it is some kind of function, e.g. pain, that brings about the need for ethics. We see existence first as that which can’t not work. It works even in nonexistence. We fall into pragmatism here, for anything without use appears contrary to all causes. However, use floats around everywhere like existence and is also problematic because of this. Ontology uses All to bolster itself, and epistemology seeks to know All for the sake of knowing. Mere existence brings use, but ethics doesn’t need the All.

The universal domain starts to bring in notions of abundance/scarcity, supply/demand, and nature/technology. Anything with high universal value would be most abundant in the environment, and therefore economically cheap. However, these objects can be reconfigured or alternatively used to generate more value. Objects that are less universal are like aesthetics, they can tend towards conflict. Technology helps to deal with the problem of scarcity by creating exact duplicates. Technology itself is not universal, however, as the intelligence to make machines and factories isn’t abundant among all objects. Whereas nature has no demands only supplies, technology has many demands.

Various objects have use by different groups of ethical agents. The common use and view of economics is by a collective. The leaders, laws, and beliefs (some of which are within ethics, some not) influence the movement of value. Leadership as a role has a value. Beliefs as reasons for actions also have their own value. When there is conflict between a significant mass of individuals, there is a division in the collective. If all individuals conflicted with every other individual, then there would be no collective. As we see individuals give (willingly or not) allegiance to other individuals, a collective can be generated with enough connected networks of allegiances.

The individual is the abstract notion of being one. As such it appears to be situated at the center of freedom/choice. Being stripped of distinct parts it appears to take many forms. The individual also fills whatever container it appears in. The individualistic domain has a contentious relationship with the collective. Many collective beliefs are objects of an individual, but not an individual qua individual, but an individual qua person. If the collective isn’t mostly virtuous agents, then the individual need not sacrifice for it, or at least there’s no blame from ethics either way. One virtuous individual is of more value than many vice agents, but no virtuous agent would sit still with such a predicament. The virtuous individual’s obligation is to ethics rather than the self.

The physical domain of objects has been of high value throughout history. Many physical struggles must be overcomed before one can seek more psychological value. The past needs physical representations so it isn’t disputed by the present. It is the physical manifestation of the self, other, and object that makes the world impactful and a pressing matter. Communication to the other must occur over the physical medium. And we see the physical appear in the pragmatic. Advances in technology and science have brought about more nonphysical objects. Whereas these were mostly stories and ideas in the past, now there is digital information and its various forms.

The personal domain appears to value those objects which are considered part of one's identity. The notions of consumer and producer are seen here. That which one produces or consumes one assumes control over. One has one’s own supply of objects which are no longer considered as mere parts of the world. Thus what has personal value may be valuable in this sense only to one individual, or many individuals who share, or it may be valued by one because it is valued by another who is valued. The personal adds history and narrative to the individual.

The psychological domain is in a sense the most important. There probably wouldn’t be a need to instantiate ethics without positive/negative feelings and pleasure/pain. Without intelligence, there would be no way to the functional much less the objective, though that is psychology used in a particular way. Psychology is generated by the brain, the physical structure. As such there are physical correlations to psychological events. There’s not enough knowledge about the brain to place all exact causes on specific effects. The physical contains the psychological, and the psychological consumes the physical since there appears to be detection of the world. Psychology doesn’t appear wholly owned by the person, as it is something for the most part built by nature.

Those objects which apply pleasure to the senses have high aesthetic value. Beauty comes in many forms which have been pointed out to be problematic. Ontology welcomes All, there is no need for the struggle between beauty and ugliness. In epistemology, there are distinctions made between existence and nonexistence, as well as truth and falsity. Beauty/ugliness can be applied in epistemology, but the outcomes aren’t as simple as truth is beauty and falsity is ugly.

Vice needs a vehicle to operate. There are certain objects used to harm others. There are objects which cause harm but aren’t used by agents. Agents may claim certain items good that are not. The intent to harm rises subjective value, but there can be harm without intent or awareness of vice. This value may perhaps best be understood as blame. Yet though we may blame a certain bad event on nature, nature doesn’t act intelligently. The subjective is related to the hard problem of consciousness, in that we seem able to choose between rationality and irrationality, logic and illogical, and virtue and vice.