meritocrat

What is needed to form a moral code?

If one's moral code is centred around empathy, how is that accomplished?

I am quite dishonest most of the time (at least in real life) and I simply chose to be that way. Is a person's morals simply about choice and volition?

Rusting Car Bumper

What is a "moral code"? Is morality best thought of in terms of a "code"?

DC

meritocrat

Why are you asking me that?

Rusting Car Bumper

Because they are relevant questions which seem to come before the ones you asked.

DC

lowmagnet

Morals always seemed an ad-hoc thing to me. Maybe I'm one of those eeeeevil 'moral relativists' of which the local right winger radio guy speaks.

meritocrat

I don't believe they are relevant at all. I think most people have a set of morals they live by.

dk

Great question. I’ll answer it with an analogy to compiler technology.

Compilers are very complex pieces of software, but in fact compilers debug themselves because they are written in their own language. That's right... C, Pascal, LISP… etc compilers are written in C, Pascal, LISP. Sounds weird, but true. In the process of writing and debugging the compiler, the program language gets debugged. In effect, the New Language in effect debugs itself through the efforts of the programmer, without the programmer giving it a second thought.

Lets back up for a second. What does a computer language do? They provide a human interphase/interpreter so people can talk communicate with a machine that only speaks binary ( machine language). People can learn to speak machine language, but as anyone that’s read a machine dump will attest, its brutal! The task of reading (or writing) a series of 1s and 0s that goes on for miles and miles can put a normal person into a coma. Its like counting grains of sand in dump truck. A compiler on the other hand presents to the programmer a language with rules, syntax, operations, keywords and structure that are intuitive, coherent, consistent and subsequently very reasonable, readable and writable. In the end a compiler succeeds by allowing people to interact with machines, and subsequently for users of the machine to interact, communicate with one another on a much grander more productive scale. For example the Big I allows people to virtually reduce the geography of the world to a single point in time and space across a multipoint to multipoint connection.

Ok how does this relate to morality..
Well morality serves people in the same context that compilers serve programmers and machines, but because people are innately complex beings morality in and of itself sometimes appears obtuse, conflicted and incomprehensible. This is reflected in the confusion that permeates the post modern world and leads well meaning people the believe morality is subjective and relative lacking any form and real substance whatsoever. But because morality allows people to understand one another and themselves moral transgressions necessarily entail a degenerative state of human being. As morality degenerates people become increasingly divided, isolated, unsatisfied, and unhappy with their lives, families, communities… etc.. Because people are innately intellectual complex social creatures that require intimacy, friendship, love to participate (act with free will) in their own destiny immorality assaults people rendering them depressed, bitter, contemptuous, apathetic and cynical. In other words morality governs people with reason by laws suitability derived from natural laws to reflect human nature. Accordingly, morality orders human life and subsequently relationships between individuals, families, communities, nations, empires civilizations i.e. the human family. Absent morality (or immorality) people can’t understand themselves or one another, so even when a person’s intentions are good (altruistic), they are often misunderstood or misdirected i.e. meaningless.

How does an individual acquire morality, reason, knowledge of one’s true nature and others…
How does a fetus learn to scratch an itch. Some say by trial and error, chance happenstance. I reject the notion, and anyone that’s ever watched the sure footed certainty by which a new born finds their mother’s tit knows chance plays no part. We are delivered into this world with a nature that resonates with an aesthetic understanding of what should be, and thus the baby knows there should be milk in mama’s tit, without an instruction manual. Like writing a new compiler the program we call human development debugs itself as it is written, and morality governs human development, as it governs civilization. Unfortunately, though we are complex beings with the innate ability to participate in our own destiny, we are also flawed as individuals. What I called the resonance of innate aesthetics that leads us to what should be, can by experience by personal defect be thwarted by immoral experiences that warp our development. In fact we are all flawed, and subject to error intellectually, emotionally and aesthetically (spiritually).

Rusting Car Bumper

If, as implied by your second sentence above, obvious then why don't you answer the questions?

DC

Rusting Car Bumper

Uh thanks... I still don't think you answered either question.

DC

Silent Acorns

I think a general definition of a "moral code" would be:

A set of rules that catagorizes actions/beliefs as either "good" or "bad" (or possibly "neutral").

Any set of rules that does this would qualify as a moral code. Although some codes will be more complete and/or detailed than others, and some might contradict themselves.
I think the creation of a "moral code" is just the result of formalizing philosophical ideas about what is good and what is bad. As soon as one says "_____ is bad", one creates a moral code.