Basic Values

There are four basic values which underlie Conditional Ethics. They are Value of Sentience, Value of Free Will, Value of Life, and Value of Well-being. These are the four conditions which the rest of the system depends on, and if we disagree on these four values then we will necessarily disagree about the whole of ethics. The first two values are intrinsic to ethics, and the second two are so practical and so widely held that they merit acceptance on their own terms.

All sentient beings value their own sentience, whether consciously or not. For the same reasons that a thing must affect experience to merit ethical consideration, a thing must affect experience to be of value. If a being is sentient, and values anything at all, they inherently value their ability to value that thing, and therefore their ability to experience. They must also value their ability to reason, because without reason they could not assimilate their experiences. Finally, a being must have some self awareness to value anything at all. If a being is not self-aware, they cannot make the connection between an idea and their value of it. These statements of requisite value, value of being experiencial, value of possessing reason, and value of self-awareness, form the basis for the first value, the Value of Sentience.

A being must also value their free will, for without free will a being could not pursue any other thing they valued. By the definition we have established for free will, this breaks down into value of volition and value of power. A being must value their volition or they cannot be said to value anything. Without volition no value can be selected. Volition is inherent in the ability to value things in much the same way that light is inherent in color; they are inseparable concepts. A being must also value power. Without any power, no value could be pursued. Whether a being values peace on earth, breathing, or the destruction of the universe, the very existence of that value implies that the being values the power required to achieve that end.

The value of power is a very interesting topic, and will be examined at great length. To say that all beings must value power is not to say that the pursuit of power is always ethically justified, but certainly the pursuit of power must be justified to some extent for all beings. There are also many things to be discussed about the ethics of power imbalances between beings. Is there an ethical limit to the power which one being should wield over others? Is it ethical for a being to relinquish power to another being, or remove power from another being? These are all topics for later. Here I only intent to show that power is valued to some degree by all beings.

The Value of Life is not provable, and is certainly not universal as many suicidal people can attest. It is, however an extremely common value. After all, beings who truly do not value their own life tend not to be around for very long. Life, by definition, requires the consumption and use of energy. Without motivation to do the things required to sustain life a being will perish and no longer be of ethical consideration. Ethical questions exist which will require that we question this value, such as the ethics of euthanasia, but they are a small subset of the ethical issues we will need to explore. For almost all ethical considerations it can be safely assumed that all parties involved value their own life. It is for this practical reason that the Value of Life is accepted as a condition of our ethical system.

Similar to the Value of Life, Value of Well-being is, for all practical purposes, universal. While it is possible to imagine a being which did not want to thrive, experience joy, or be fulfilled in any way, it is so counter-intuitive as to seem impossible. Even the clinically depressed, if asked, would respond that they would like to be healthy and happy. Since this value is so prevalent in sentient beings we will accept it as our fourth value.

To pull these concepts a little tighter, I would like to specify that human beings are the primary focus of Conditional Ethics. I have left things non-specific during the formation of the basis of the system so that concepts can easily be adapted to changing situations and understandings. For instance, as we come to understand the mental lives of animals we will already be equipped to evaluate the ethics involved in our relationships with them. Briefly, the degree to which a being has sentience is the degree to which it is of ethical consideration, and humans are the most sentient beings I am aware of, and are thus of the utmost importance in all of my ethical decisions.

We now have some definitions, rules, and concepts central to our ethical system. We also have a set of values which we can base our ethical judgments on. Equipped with these we are now prepared to create a set of rules for ethical behavior, a system of ethics, which depends on these conditions we have established. The foundation of Conditional Ethics has been laid.