Humanity's Codes for Living

The frameworks that have been considered in the Root provide the basis for three types of necessary «Codes for Living». Their psychosocial purpose is often termed "ethical" or "moral", but that blurs significant differences. They deal in turn with essential rules to ensure:

  • Existence i.e. Social Survival
  • Rightness
  • Goodness

Three personal frameworks emerging from Will, the Root Cell have now been identified and elaborated: 

  • Personal Endeavour: Creativity in the Root Hierarchy
    Review.
  • Purposes of Life: Primal Quests in the Root Typology
    Review.
  • Better Self: Primal Injunctions in the Root Tertiary Hierarchy
    Review.

These three are progressively emergent as shown in the diagram: i.e. the Primal Injunctions-R"H are nested within RL'6-Obedience of the Primal Quests-RH', which in turn are nested within RL6-Purpose of Personal Endeavour-RH, which is emanated by Will-R, the Root and Origin of the Taxonomy. See internal Levels of each in the diagram.

These Root frameworks appear to be focused on the most general issues that a person faces. They differ from the many frameworks found within specific Root Levels i.e. governing specialized aspects of Action, Inquiry, Change, Experience, Communication, Purpose and Willingness. Each of these essences of living carries a different degree of importance depending on your particular life choices. The Root Hierarchy (as a whole), by contrast, is where everybody always finds themselves fully involved.

It is, perhaps, no surprise that these 3 Root frameworks are the source of Codes for Living developed over the millennia, and still of great concern, in regard to:

  • Existence — Social Survival
  • Rightness — Life's Purpose
  • Goodness — Better Self

Paul MacLean, former Director within the US National Institute of Mental Health developed a model of the brain based on its evolutionary development. He called it: the "Triune Brain" theory. Current neuro-scientific research on the interaction of these three «brains» finds that the hypothesized relationships are not so neat. Despite this, the model helps us focus on three different drivers within us that have some link to humanity's Codes.

  • The reptilian brain is located in the brain stem and basal ganglia, and embodies survival-focused instincts of fear, sex, herding, territoriality and dominance. It operates in an automatic and ritualistic way that is highly resistant to change. The Existence Codes control our animal nature, and so focus here.
  • Evolution of mammals came with a capacity to relate and nurture the young. The handling of emotions, learning and attachment is a feature of the limbic system including the amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus and cingulate cortex. While this system can inhibit instinct-based habits and reflexes, it generates kinship pressures and probably both spiritual and egocentric states. The Rightness Codes are built on personal feeling and preference, so the focus is here.
  • Finally, evolution provided man with a cerebral cortex, (the neocortex or New Brain, which has become the bulk of our brain. This brain allows for language, abstraction, thinking, perception, and planning using a deliberate choice of values. Rationality and imaginative play are the youngest functions of the brain, and seemingly the most vulnerable. The Goodness Codes are dependent on reflection and principle, and so the focus is here.

Exactly how this association should be understood is unknown. All codes recognize all neurobiological systems. It must surely be complicated.

Originally posted: 10-Jan-2013