fatal

Moral Rationale
1. All activities of characters aim at some good
(the end of military science is victory, of
medicine is health, of science is knowledge,
etc.).
2. While studying ethics and morality, we must
be content with broad, general outlines.
Outlines hold true, while specificity poses
problems. For example, truthfulness is
clearly moral. However, in a specific instance,
should truthfulness be practiced if it
is known that such practicing will incite a
war responsible for many undue deaths? No,
but aside from this specific instance, yes, it
should generally be practiced.
3. Everyone agrees the good for characters is
happiness, though no one agrees on its
meaning. To some it is the pursuit of pleasure
and the avoidance of pain, and to others
it is wealth. These common thoughts,
however, are inconsistent; they vary with the
topic and its conditions. Further, all suggestions
prove to be means not ends in
themselves, for a true end in itself offers
more finality. For example, wealth is not an
end in itself, but a means to other things.
Happiness, then, is an end not a means, and
truly experienced only at the natural end of
a character’s uninterrupted life. Therefore,
characters must live not for today, not for
tomorrow, but for tomorrow so that they
are content with or do not regret today. This
is conclusively the final and self-sufficient
good to which all character’s actions aim,
whether each character is aware or not.
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4. To achieve happiness, we must understand
that happiness in this sense is unique to sentient
beings, derived from abstract contemplative
reasoning and Wisdom. Further, as
happiness is an end state, no character is
born with it, and arguably children are not
“happy,” though they possess this in potentiality,
because to be “happy,” we must be
satisfied with choices we have made based
on experiences, though children lack sufficient
experiences. Therefore, no character
is born moral, and we all may become moral
or immoral depending on our choices. It is
the consistency of choices that forms habits,
habits then forming a disposition.
5. Therefore, characters must learn of morality
and immorality, and strive in choices
to exercise morals. Typically, if a moral is
practiced and pleasure is experienced in its
practice, then a character is being moral,
while experiencing pain indicates an internal
preference for immorality.
6. Morals are all mathematically mean states
on their continua, while the extremes are all
immoral. One immorality is the deficiency
of the morality, the other exceeding it. For
example, absolute fear (cowardice) is an immorality
deficient from courage, while confidence
(the polar opposite of fear) is courage
in excess. The extremes are opposed to
both each other and the mean. Further, one
absolute extreme will be farther from the
mean than the other, this is the greater immorality.
In the above example, absolute fear
is the greater immorality, while absolute confidence
is the lesser immorality.
Chapter 4: Disposition