Saturday, February 25, 2006
Origin of Right and Wrong
The notion of right and wrong comes from an individuals need to survive (Ayn Rand).
Now bear with me for while. Let me explain. This isn’t so hard.
Start with the proposition that there are two broad entities in the universe.
Life and non life.
Non life is matter that doesn’t require the input of energy to exist or maintain its current state of existence. Most of the universe is made up of this.
Life is matter organized and maintained by energy. Not the energy term lay people use to describe vitality or busyness. But, the energy as defined by physics. Life requires energy to form, and maintain all states of existence.
This notion implies that in order for life to exist it has to possess a mechanism of gathering energy to survive. It is not possible for a life form to create its own energy, it has to be acquired. Every life form possesses an energy gathering mechanism , i.e. survival mechanism.
In the simplest forms of life the survival mechanism is extremely simple. A bacterium for instance uses its small size and rapid reproduction to enable it to stumble onto a host and obtain its energy from it. It doesn’t use reason for survival. It is preprogrammed to react to whatever situation it finds itself in. If it finds itself outside a host, it goes into a reduced energy state. Just barely existing as a life form.
The host being a higher life form possess a more sophisticated survival mechanism. For instance a plant. A plant has specialized cells that senses the presents of energy and other non life building blocks used for its survival and uses the energy and ingredients to survive and exist. If a seedling tree for instance, finds itself growing in a desert or in a cave it dies. It possess no means of doing anything about this dilemma so it perishes.
A higher order life forms like a wolf, possesses a much more sophisticated means of survival. Its has a brain and is mobile. Its brain can sense its needs for survival and react to its needs in a predetermined way, depending upon what its senses tell it. Its brain for the most part is hard wired and only reacts in certain ways to its needs and senses. For example, a wolf’s brain senses that it is hungry and sees a rabbit running in front of it. It’s hard wired reaction is to give chase, kill the prey, and eat it. This was right for the wolf’s survival. The wolf obtained its energy needs and will survive. The big difference from lower life forms is that its brain made hardwired decisions about it’s survival or existence. If it is thirsty, it is mobile enough to seek out water by using the inputs from it’s senses into it’s hardwired brain and satisfy its survival needs. There were no decisions to be made, therefore there was no wrong. Just right!
Now consider man. We have brains and senses that for the most part are not hard wired. Meaning we can sense our needs, gather information from the universe around us and through the use of reason make decisions about how we are to exist. In the case of humans, existing can mean more than just the gathering of energy.
Every man can sense the universe around him, can gather and store knowledge about the universe and can use this information to decide how they wants to survive. This means you are responsible to yourself for how you survive. You can’t use another persons senses, knowledge and reasoning for survival. The decisions you make about your survival make you happy or sad as well as alive or dead.
Through the means of intellectual reasoning about how we survive comes the definitions of right and wrong.
Thou shall not kill. Intellectual reason and knowledge says to make your survival better or easier you would not kill the another person. The pooling of labor or, knowledge of the person you were about to kill and yours, along with the intellect of both will make it more likely both parties will be better able to survive. i.e. A person with the knowledge of farming and another with the knowledge of tool making. A person driven by emotion devoid of reason could survive be stealing the other persons food and perhaps kill for it. But reason tells you that sooner or later you will not survive very long providing for yourself this way. You will just as likely be killed providing for yourself in this way. So right, is do not kill. Wrong, is kill! If everyone killed others to eat their food, then everyone would die and the whole species would die out! Wrong!
This also means there is a hierarchy of importance when it comes to your survival decision making. It means you come first. With out your survival nothing else maters to you. Do you care more about your own survival, or the survival of the stranger sitting next you? You care more about your own survival. The other person has the responsibility to use their reason and knowledge to provide for their survival. If you had the knowledge to help that person sitting next to you, you would help him only after you are satisfied that your family, friends and people who bring joy to your life are able to survive first. So you see there is a hierarchy of right and wrong. Why does this hierarchy exist? Because your immediate family, extended family, and friends make your survival more likely, more comfortable, more satisfying than the stranger sitting next to you.
These simple examples can be extrapolated infinitum.
This philosophy would be a utopia if the whole of society subscribes to the same power of reason and knowledge. Until this happens, it is not required that everyone buy into this philosophy. It is however necessary that everyone be taught and understands that this is the unencumbered way to right and wrong.
Reason armed with the knowledge of the universe manifests right and wrong. This does not mean an individual can just react to his emotions and go about satisfying them. Reason would tell them that there would be negative implications if they embarked on this path and it is not reasonable. As long as reason is used for decisions about everyone’s own survival and happiness, then the power of individual freedom will invade all of society and, we will truly be free. This may take thousands years but it is the only pure way of determining what is right and wrong for a human being.
Some would say that this would reduce us to clones, just like animals and lower life forms. The opposite is true. Animals do not have the capacity to reason. Humans do! Animals do not have the ability to make choices. Humans do! Animals just exist. Humans can exist and have happiness too. Happiness is everything beyond basic existence. Humans can and do contribute to the whole of humanity. By using reason they contribute their excess production (beyond their survival needs) to the rest of humanity. In this instance production means production of what ever the individual pursues and is good at. As long as it is based on reason!
Just imagine what the standard of living and the acceptance of one another will be when we are all surviving at the highest level we can. When ever one has to make a decision they look to reason armed with knowledge for the answer. Not emotion. No longer could so called leaders evoke class envy, nationalism or religion to gain power by pitting one group against an other. Everyone using reason, would automatically discredit the person and throw him on the heap of unenlightened relic leaders. Only leaders with vision based on reason and knowledge could gain power. Listen carefully to your current flock of leaders. Every one of their sound bites are designed to elicit an emotional response from you. They never ask you to reason, never provide the knowledge, or facts to reason. They know that thinking is hard work, much less likely to be used than an emotional response.
JS
Now bear with me for while. Let me explain. This isn’t so hard.
Start with the proposition that there are two broad entities in the universe.
Life and non life.
Non life is matter that doesn’t require the input of energy to exist or maintain its current state of existence. Most of the universe is made up of this.
Life is matter organized and maintained by energy. Not the energy term lay people use to describe vitality or busyness. But, the energy as defined by physics. Life requires energy to form, and maintain all states of existence.
This notion implies that in order for life to exist it has to possess a mechanism of gathering energy to survive. It is not possible for a life form to create its own energy, it has to be acquired. Every life form possesses an energy gathering mechanism , i.e. survival mechanism.
In the simplest forms of life the survival mechanism is extremely simple. A bacterium for instance uses its small size and rapid reproduction to enable it to stumble onto a host and obtain its energy from it. It doesn’t use reason for survival. It is preprogrammed to react to whatever situation it finds itself in. If it finds itself outside a host, it goes into a reduced energy state. Just barely existing as a life form.
The host being a higher life form possess a more sophisticated survival mechanism. For instance a plant. A plant has specialized cells that senses the presents of energy and other non life building blocks used for its survival and uses the energy and ingredients to survive and exist. If a seedling tree for instance, finds itself growing in a desert or in a cave it dies. It possess no means of doing anything about this dilemma so it perishes.
A higher order life forms like a wolf, possesses a much more sophisticated means of survival. Its has a brain and is mobile. Its brain can sense its needs for survival and react to its needs in a predetermined way, depending upon what its senses tell it. Its brain for the most part is hard wired and only reacts in certain ways to its needs and senses. For example, a wolf’s brain senses that it is hungry and sees a rabbit running in front of it. It’s hard wired reaction is to give chase, kill the prey, and eat it. This was right for the wolf’s survival. The wolf obtained its energy needs and will survive. The big difference from lower life forms is that its brain made hardwired decisions about it’s survival or existence. If it is thirsty, it is mobile enough to seek out water by using the inputs from it’s senses into it’s hardwired brain and satisfy its survival needs. There were no decisions to be made, therefore there was no wrong. Just right!
Now consider man. We have brains and senses that for the most part are not hard wired. Meaning we can sense our needs, gather information from the universe around us and through the use of reason make decisions about how we are to exist. In the case of humans, existing can mean more than just the gathering of energy.
Every man can sense the universe around him, can gather and store knowledge about the universe and can use this information to decide how they wants to survive. This means you are responsible to yourself for how you survive. You can’t use another persons senses, knowledge and reasoning for survival. The decisions you make about your survival make you happy or sad as well as alive or dead.
Through the means of intellectual reasoning about how we survive comes the definitions of right and wrong.
Thou shall not kill. Intellectual reason and knowledge says to make your survival better or easier you would not kill the another person. The pooling of labor or, knowledge of the person you were about to kill and yours, along with the intellect of both will make it more likely both parties will be better able to survive. i.e. A person with the knowledge of farming and another with the knowledge of tool making. A person driven by emotion devoid of reason could survive be stealing the other persons food and perhaps kill for it. But reason tells you that sooner or later you will not survive very long providing for yourself this way. You will just as likely be killed providing for yourself in this way. So right, is do not kill. Wrong, is kill! If everyone killed others to eat their food, then everyone would die and the whole species would die out! Wrong!
This also means there is a hierarchy of importance when it comes to your survival decision making. It means you come first. With out your survival nothing else maters to you. Do you care more about your own survival, or the survival of the stranger sitting next you? You care more about your own survival. The other person has the responsibility to use their reason and knowledge to provide for their survival. If you had the knowledge to help that person sitting next to you, you would help him only after you are satisfied that your family, friends and people who bring joy to your life are able to survive first. So you see there is a hierarchy of right and wrong. Why does this hierarchy exist? Because your immediate family, extended family, and friends make your survival more likely, more comfortable, more satisfying than the stranger sitting next to you.
These simple examples can be extrapolated infinitum.
This philosophy would be a utopia if the whole of society subscribes to the same power of reason and knowledge. Until this happens, it is not required that everyone buy into this philosophy. It is however necessary that everyone be taught and understands that this is the unencumbered way to right and wrong.
Reason armed with the knowledge of the universe manifests right and wrong. This does not mean an individual can just react to his emotions and go about satisfying them. Reason would tell them that there would be negative implications if they embarked on this path and it is not reasonable. As long as reason is used for decisions about everyone’s own survival and happiness, then the power of individual freedom will invade all of society and, we will truly be free. This may take thousands years but it is the only pure way of determining what is right and wrong for a human being.
Some would say that this would reduce us to clones, just like animals and lower life forms. The opposite is true. Animals do not have the capacity to reason. Humans do! Animals do not have the ability to make choices. Humans do! Animals just exist. Humans can exist and have happiness too. Happiness is everything beyond basic existence. Humans can and do contribute to the whole of humanity. By using reason they contribute their excess production (beyond their survival needs) to the rest of humanity. In this instance production means production of what ever the individual pursues and is good at. As long as it is based on reason!
Just imagine what the standard of living and the acceptance of one another will be when we are all surviving at the highest level we can. When ever one has to make a decision they look to reason armed with knowledge for the answer. Not emotion. No longer could so called leaders evoke class envy, nationalism or religion to gain power by pitting one group against an other. Everyone using reason, would automatically discredit the person and throw him on the heap of unenlightened relic leaders. Only leaders with vision based on reason and knowledge could gain power. Listen carefully to your current flock of leaders. Every one of their sound bites are designed to elicit an emotional response from you. They never ask you to reason, never provide the knowledge, or facts to reason. They know that thinking is hard work, much less likely to be used than an emotional response.
JS
