Ethics

An ethical code is like the tip of an iceberg which represents the conscious acknowledgment of the valuations made by a human group. The underwater part has its roots in those emotional valuations that were successful in the process of survival during a specific period of the life of the group. These hidden valuations are basically encoded at a deeper level in the social actions, and thus, in the group’s communications, i.e. in its mythico-ritual axis. A common characteristic to all ethical codes is their pretension of universal validity, for they express the way things are. Contemporary Western codes base their valuations in a mythico-ritual axis which is a mixture of myths of universal law and myths of the human law, but could we formulate ethical principles which follow exclusively principles of human law, putting aside gods and the supernatural, or even materialist reifications (and transcendentalizations ) of the own human being?

This is a small collection of ethical axioms based on an anthropological onto-epistemology.

Ethical axioms

Principle of Self-Sufficiency: Human beings are not means for something else, they are ends in themselves. This one was expressed by Kant, among others.

Principle of Life Preservation: Human life must be preserved. Preserving human life implies the general preservation of life, sentient and non-sentient. However, despite the fact that we are the peak of life on Earth, we are not its only neither its final card, for evolution continues at a much bigger scale than us through mass extinctions.

Principle of the Limits of Self-Preservation: Human life is only worth under the social conditions which allow the self-realization and intellectual development of the group and the individual. Mere brutish and nasty living is not enough. We have the knowledge necessary for a life oriented towards intelligence and personal growth.

Principle of Juridical Freedom of Expression: Every individual is free to express publically any idea or opinion, even if is contrary to the general interest of the group, and cannot be punished for it.

Principle of Autonomy of the Individual: Every individual is the only owner of his/her body, and the only determiner of what is best for his/her health and way of life. No individual or group can impose its will to others.

Meta-ethical axiom

Principle of Ethical Relativism: there is not a universal set of ethical values for all human beings but there are particular ethical sets which are mythico-ritually determined.