Sunday, July 27, 2014

my theorem of moral codes, or, DD's assertion

I had a very intense debate with my brilliant father, aunt and mother this evening over my pet theory about the moral codes of humans. I like to think I'm a smart guy but I'm also the dumbest person in my extended family.

My thesis is this. Your moral code is based entirely on two factors: your time horizon and your in-group. I was met with a staggering amount of intelligent resistance.

So,  since all 8 of my readers are brilliant people (hello GL!) I want to put my theorem or there in the hopes that it can be ripped to shreds.

I propose a classification system for moral codes.  I make no judgement on the underlying morality (being a 100% perceiver on the Myers Briggs).

I suggest that all moral codes, or beliefs in what is moral behavior,  are based entirely on two factors: time horizon and in-group identification.

My father,  a trained chemist and humanist scholar, demanded that I provide a proof.  Being a person who graduated high school with a 2.2 GPA due to getting F's on all my homework and A's on all my tests,  I'm ill equipped to do this for temperamental and scholarly reasons.

I suggest that morals,  and moral codes vary throughout a person's lifetime. Therefore,  I propose that there are only two variables (which can change or not depending on the individual .)

These variables are in-group and time horizon.

I would suggest that these are the only variables that affect the moral decisions of any individual in society. We make 100% of our positive (meaning we approve of them on immediate reflection) decisions based on this moral code and that our morality as we see it is only influenced by how far into the future we project our in-group.

Remember that the inputs are variables and I contends they are the only variables which are relevant.

Discuss? I hope.