the nature of morality

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  • It's knowledge essentially. What is knowledge? Something confirmed by many perspectives to be a consistent in nature.

    All of man's actions go back to one thing alone: Self-Interest. It's the reason you wrote that comment, why I'm writing mine, why this site exists, and also why I'm getting up to make a cup of coffee.

    The purpose of morality then is to fulfill our self-interest without destroying ourselves or our fellow man. The very ability to deny our impulses, through knowledge (morality), is the very thing that makes us human; to do otherwise is to be enslaved to our desires just as the animal is and thus destroy ourselves.

    So basically the end goal of morality is to achieve symbiosis in society. To give us the ends of Self-Interest without taking away from life but rather giving back to it.

    Where did it come from? I think God. I can't give you the "how" but that's my belief.

    *Re-worded

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    • So... superego is morality is humanity?

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      • Not exactly. It's not about the denying of our self-interest which is essentially good, but fulfilling it in a healthy way. The directing of raw energy like how a car engine is directed by a wheel.

        What do you see it as?

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        • No I mostly agree with you, but you're adding an element that I don't think is necessary to the definition, namely, self-interest.

          I think it's clear if we put it in Freud's terms. The id represents our base desires (fulfilling self-interest), our ego is that which acts upon it, and our superego judges, conditions, and justifies.

          I'd argue that morality is solely the superego, but instead of it being some sort of Freudian paternal manifestation, the motives of the superego are concerned with upholding social fluidity.

          I'm not yet sold on morality as a purely human construct, but I'm willing to be persuaded.

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