Review-IV: Humanity & Society

Two Senses of Ethics/Morality

As originally explained, man is a moral being in two senses of the term.

In THEE, the Framework of Endeavour (Root Hierarchy) develops in two directions. One is an emanation of each of the 7 Levels leading to society, organizations and everything that enables everyday life. The other is a series of structures that emerge from within Purpose, the 6^th Root Level, which exist to define humanity i.e. the meaning of being human.

■ Ethics as an existential obligation starts with the requirement to recognize a purpose in life. Our options are defined by the Primal Quests (Root Typology) nested within Purpose-RL6. This Typology leads to a range of structures, including the Planes of Existence, and others to be developed in the following sections, which are about rightness and goodness, apart from any particular society or culture.

■ Ethics, as a societal obligation, is found within the Purpose-RL6 emanation. This enables specification and control over Ethical Choice-PH'6, Ethical Rules-PH"6 and Ethical Authorities-sPH"6. Identity emanated by Experience-PH4 is also a factor, because it generates Social Being. This is the source of a culture's Natural Moral Institutions.
Note: Societal ethics are not examined in this Satellite. Frameworks are available in Working with Values (1995), and also in the Politics Satellite.

Various Dualities in Obligation

Because existence is intrinsic to the evolution of human consciousness (i.e. being human), existential issues form the context for the ethical issues in any society.

Nevertheless, in debates over issues, society's ethics are often given pre-eminence over existential ethics because:

• Ethics is a defining aspect of every local community, society and culture. Considering the furthest reaches of humanity in alien lands with alien cultures is difficult and usually unwanted by most community members.
• The speaker may be a thoughtful person unconsciously functioning on the Psychological Plane where local ethical-social concerns are dominant.
• Obligations to humanity extend beyond the immediate situation, time, society or culture and therefore seem abstract, unworldly or mysterious.

In the ethical-social domain: 

Obligation is either deontological: i.e. rightvwrong; or teleological: i.e. goodvbad.

► Review.

In the existential-ethical domain:

Quests enable personal determination and a final decision about what is right v not right. See below.	► Review.
Model Beings enable personal determination and choices in terms of good v evil.	► Review.

Quests: Right v Not Right

The opposite of «Right» in the Primal Quests (in its various forms as shown in the TET diagram) is not «Wrong». Instead it is something specific that varies with the Quest as shown in the Table.

RH'L	Primal Quest	Nature of «Right»	Version of «Not Right»
7	Spirituality	Think right	Experience of duality and a separate self.
6	Obedience	Sustain righteousness	Impropriety, rule violation, acting ultra vires.
5	Creation	Produce rightness	Unacceptable, unfinished, "doesn't work".
4	Salvation	Sustain righteousness	Neglect of a suffering person, cruelty or pitiless behaviour.
3	Enlightenment	Think right	Use of denial, self-deception and illusion.
2	Meaning	Feel right	Feel badly, guilty, ashamed.
1	Pleasure	Feel right	All undesirable inner states e.g. pain, frustration, impatience, fear.

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Originally posted: 12-Oct-2012.