My mom. And what I can get away with and still be a leader in the future . Pain. Reality. Dungeons & Dragons. Dr. Phil and Joel Osteen. Prudence.

I pretend that the last one is all there is and seriously avoid dwelling on such questions. Despite what I’ve been taught, I’ve noticed the world gives short shrift to those manacled to numbers 2 through 6.

Common decency.

Perhaps there is an instinctual aspect. When I was 3 years old I stole a couple small toys from my babysitter’s kid. I somehow knew that it was wrong. I hid the toys so I wouldn’t get caught and I felt guilt for my crime. No one taught me anything about guilt, or right or wrong. If it wasn’t instinct then it may have been due to my young observations of the world and behaving in the most logical way in order to get along.

My ethics and moral principles are all about how I feel about myself. I like the women in the mirror and plan on keeping it that way, so far as in how I treat others. When it comes to certain rules and government I really don’t give a damn, but yes, I pay my taxes. haha

That human beings are self interested first. If anything is left over, look out for everybody else.

The Golden Rule.

Life experience.

The experience of people we respect imparting their philosophy for a good life.

The golden rule.

Decent role models and my faith and the role models I chose to be inspired by in my everyday life. Not TV stars or anyone who has nothing to do with my life.
I never did understand people who chose famous people to emulate, but then I had great people in my life to help mode who I was to become.
But I suppose a good deal of it had to be in me to begin with since some of my siblings are complete opposite of me.
I had two teachers once tell me that I was born an old soul.

The basis of my ethos? The Boy Scouts of America. And my guilt complex.

A feeling in the gut.

I just cannot explain it further.

It’s mostly survival for me.

Generally speaking, it’s beneficial for me to not be an asshole, because then the people around me are more likely to be kind/tolerant/helpful to me. Being good to others is a fantastic way to be good to yourself.

The Golden Rule

Is this a sober question? Or a stress question? Cause I gotta feelin’ these “ethical moral principles” would vary wildly hour by hour relative to the degree of pressure they suffered at any given time.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Not necessarily. Sure I’d steal to feed myself or lie to protect my life or someone elses but I wouldn’t ever lie, cheat or deceive anyone for selfish purposes or personal gain.

Food and protection are for personal gain.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Nope, they’re about survival. Personal gain comes after survival needs are met.

It’s all in the breeding old bean, seperates the wheat from the chaff don’t you know.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Honestly it’s just a question to get a philosophical discussion going. It’s also a question out of curiosity to see how people view ethics and morality.

Empathy, children’s stories and the good example of others.

I’m a hedonist and utilitarian. In the end, the only good is pleasure, and the only bad is pain. And since no one has a claim to their pleasure being more valuable than anyone else’s, everybody’s pleasure matters. But pleasure and pain are a lot more nuanced than most people think, especially when it comes to which pleasures are better than others and which pains are worse than others (or figuring out when it is worth forgoing a pleasure or enduring a pain).

I also think avoiding pain is more important than gaining pleasure, partially because the absence of pain is itself a very great pleasure. And importantly, what counts as a pleasure or a pain is going to be based on facts about human nature. We are naturally empathetic (well, the sane among us are), so benevolent acts will often be pleasurable. This goes back to pleasure and pain being nuanced. A lot of people think of hedonism in the modern sense of excessive eating, drinking, and fucking. But a thoughtful hedonist avoids excess and balances these more obvious pleasures with less obvious ones.

Most ethical theories actually agree about what we should and shouldn’t do most of the time. It’s just a difference of how they get there. The arguments happen when there is a situation that we don’t already know the answer to, which also ends up being when different theories give different results.