diff --git a/Ethics.md b/Ethics.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d011412 --- /dev/null +++ b/Ethics.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +# Ethics + +Ethics is reasoning about what we owe other people and what constitutes good character. Because our actions affect other people, ethical [[Making Decisions|decisions]] ask what our [[Values|values]] require and use [[Mindfulness|attention]] to examine what we are doing and why. + +These notes are based on [*How to Be Perfect*](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-to-Be-Perfect/Michael-Schur/9781982159320), which treats ethics as a practice of caring, trying, failing, learning, and trying again. + +- No single moral framework resolves every situation, each reveals concerns the others miss, and their answers can conflict. +- Avoid both apathy and impossible moral perfection. Moral sainthood can erase relationships, joy, rest, interests, and your own chance to flourish. +- Keep a shared moral baseline. Other people's interests cannot be ignored for convenience. Beyond it, expectations rise with capacity, freedom, luck, and resources. If you can afford to do a little extra, do a little extra. +- Use [[Values|moral opportunity cost]] to resist complacency without requiring every unit of time or money to maximize welfare. +- Moral exhaustion and honest mistakes are inevitable. Self-forgiveness sustains effort, but it should not disguise apathy, repeated selfishness, or preventable harm. +- Own each mistake on its own merits. Criticize the specific conduct rather than turning wrongdoing into an identity. Keep the account concrete, but an apology is not a way to manage your image or demand forgiveness. + +## Moral Lenses + +- **Virtue:** What kind of person should I be? Practice kindness, courage, generosity, loyalty, and mildness in the right amount; both deficiency and excess can become vices. +- **Consequences:** Who gains or suffers? Consider the severity, duration, likelihood, timing, and reach of the happiness and harm created, while remembering that outcomes are uncertain and difficult to compare. +- **Universal Rules:** What is the real rule behind the action, and would it still work if everyone followed it? Treat every person as an end, never merely as a means. +- **Fairness:** Could every reasonable person affected accept the rule? Design fair rules as if you did not know your own wealth, health, identity, or position. +- **Community:** “A person is a person through other people.” Individual choices should account for community health and the equal importance of other people's interests. + +## Practical Test + +For a difficult choice, ask: + +1. Who is affected, including people who are distant, less visible, or unable to object? +2. What direct and downstream harms may follow, and how likely, severe, and lasting are they? +3. Could the rule behind the choice be universal and accepted as fair by those affected? +4. Does it treat people as ends rather than tools for convenience, status, or gain? +5. What character does the choice express, and does it fit the person you are trying to become? + +For collective choices, inspect [[Incentives]], externalities, and feedback within [[Systems]], then ask whether [[Governance|governance]] rules would be fair from any position. Refusing to choose is still a choice; use the lenses to clarify responsibility, not to escape it. diff --git a/Making Decisions.md b/Making Decisions.md index d5a9e2d..74a259d 100644 --- a/Making Decisions.md +++ b/Making Decisions.md @@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ Decision-making is the process we use to identify and choose alternatives, produ - You don't feel the consequences/pain of the actions you don't take! A good decision can still have unintended consequences. - [Most of the time there is no particular individual or approximation of an individual who's in charge](https://jscaseddon.co/2024/02/science-for-steering-vs-for-decision-making/). There’s a social or political process, in which many decision-makers, each with different motivations that may or may not include anything other than self-interest, negotiate, collaborate, compete, haggle, ... - Usually the baseline is "nothing" so the right heuristic is usually not "is it ideal" but rather "is it better than nothing?" +- For choices affecting other people, apply the [[Ethics#Practical test|ethical decision test]] in which you identify who is affected and the likely harms, test whether the rule could be universal and accepted as fair, ensure people are treated as ends, and ask what character the choice expresses. ![schema](https://miro.medium.com/max/700/1*9H9letDTBO0IvuGbYN4x6A.png) diff --git a/Relationships.md b/Relationships.md index fa32d3b..6866e5b 100644 --- a/Relationships.md +++ b/Relationships.md @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ - Do novel and exciting things with your friends often. - If you feel that something is not right, it probably is not right. Deal with it early. Problems are much quicker and easier to resolve when they're fresh and small than after you let them simmer into deep resentment. - [Relationships are a coevolutionary loop](https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/making-a-home-together). Make it explicit by [[Writing|writing]] and sharing everything that goes wrong. This helps pinpoint the bottlenecks, the frictions. It also forces you to put words to your [[Goals|goals]], [[Values|values]], and assumptions, opening those up for discussion and refinement. -- Acknowledge and apologize for any mistakes made. [[Learning|Learn]] and improve. +- When you cause harm, [[Ethics|own it without comparisons or excuses]]. Apologize soon and specifically. State what you did, who it harmed and how, say it was wrong and that you regret it, ask what repair is needed, make restitution where possible, and change your behavior. Forgiveness belongs to the harmed person. - [Friends make life good](https://youtu.be/I9hJ_Rux9y0). They provide the scaffolding that makes it not just bearable but fun. They give us a sense of meaning and purpose and are a source of security, self-esteem and happiness. Almost nothing predicts how happy you will be as strongly as how connected you feel, and a lack of social connection is associated with a number of diseases and a shorter life. - When presented with a challenging or boring moment with another person, deliberately adopt an attitude of [[Curiosity|curiosity]] in which your goal isn't to achieve any particular outcome or explain your position but to figure out who this human being is who we're with. - Create many contexts. A friend who you see in only one context is likely to be a less close friend than someone who you see in many contexts, and connect with over many different things, rather than a single shared interest.