Ethics

Discussions of moral philosophy, ethical frameworks, and normative questions.

Posts

• The Physics of Agency, Part 10: The Grand Synthesis and Future Directions - Synthesizes Physics of Agency framework and outlines future research directions.
• The Physics of Agency, Part 8: Meaning, Ethics, and Evolution Under the Physics of Agency - Explores implications of Physics of Agency for meaning, ethics, and evolution.
• Why I’m an Individualist
• Sacred Coherence - Proposes logical coherence as supreme value (“Vulcanism” / Sacred Coherence).
• Universal Alignment - Comprehensive AI alignment analysis.
• From Sovereignty to Slavery - Provocative thesis: Taxation and slavery differ in degree, not kind—both lie on continuous Taxat
• Navigating Moral Realism with Agent-Binding - Agent-binding resolves Humean skepticism about moral realism.
• Against Cosmic Utility - Repugnant Conclusion (Parfit) exposes population ethics flaw. Classical util: World with 10B bar
• Effective Altruism Without Moral Realism - EA = intellectually rigorous moral movement, but assumes objective value (fundamental error). EA
• Rights Are Forged - Rights ≠ self-evident, eternal, or divinely ordained. In subjective value framework where agency
• Sacrifice as Signal - To know what someone values, watch what they sacrifice. Value = pattern of behavior, not feeling
• The Death of Objective Morality - Morality = structured hierarchy of preferences, not special kind of truth. Most believe/act as i
• The Myth of Equal Value - “All human lives equally valuable” = philosophically indefensible. Widely asserted, rarely quest
• The Myth of Objective Value - Core thesis: All value is subjective. Value does not exist independently—it arises only relative
• Virtues, Consequences, and Codes - Three great ethical traditions rebuilt without objectivity illusion. **All assume moral truth gr
• What Counts As Coercion - Precise operational definition of coercion. Used loosely to describe everything from violence to
• Agency, Not Equality - SYNTHESIS POST for entire political applications sequence. Challenged assumptions about inequali
• Immigration Restrictions Are a Form of Harm - Immigration restrictions widely accepted, but crucial ethical dimension overlooked: Restrictions
• Inequality Is Not the Problem—Poverty Is - Inequality debates assume differences in wealth inherently cause harm/injustice (mistaken). Real
• Inequality Is Not the Problem—Poverty Is - Challenges the common focus on inequality reduction in favor of poverty alleviation.
• Reasonable Disagreement - Meta-level insight: Reasonable people can disagree even with same information. Despite rigorous
• The Libertarian Illusion of Equal Opportunity - **Libertarians emphasize “equal opportunity” while rejecting “equal outcomes” (appealing but contrad
• The Myth of Cultural Threat - Common argument against open immigration: perceived threat to culture/stability/safety. While co
• What Counts as Consent - Precise operational definition of consent. Foundational in ethics, law, medicine, sex, governanc
• What Counts as Harm - Rigorous definition filters moral inflation. Used without precision → confusion.
• Why Coercive Redistribution Is Always Harmful - Redistribution defended by compassion/fairness/social justice—but does method itself cause harm?
• The Hidden Power of Principles - Defends principled behavior as strategically optimal, not merely morally admirable.
• IQ: Realities, Misconceptions, and Moral Confusions - Defends IQ as valid cognitive measure while addressing critiques and moral concerns.
• The Ethics of the Unconceived - Defends embryo selection against “murder” accusations.
• Justice After Colonization - Proposes agency-restoring approach to post-colonial justice.
• The Ethics of Immigration vs. Colonization - Counterfactual thought experiment: what if European arrival had been ethical immigration rather than
• Universal Basic Income - This post evaluates Universal Basic Income (UBI) through Axio’s ethical framework: **the integrity o
• Against Positive Rights - This post argues that within Axio’s framework, all valid rights are negative rights.
• Look Where You’re Going - Unpacks the multi-layered wisdom in the simple advice “look where you’re going,” revealing depth fro
• The Highest Good - Applies Conditionalism to the claim “everyone must worship something,” showing truth depends on inte
• Sapientism - Proposes “Sapientism” as evolution beyond humanism: Moral value resides in all sapient minds (biolog
• What Counts as Evil - This post defines evil formally as “intentional harm caused by an agent,” building on precise techni
• The Agency Protection Principle - This essay proposes a refined ethical principle improving upon libertarianism’s traditional Non-Aggr
• What is Suffering? - This essay develops a rigorous technical definition of suffering essential for ethical frameworks, A
• Comparing Value Systems - Proposes using cosine similarity from vector mathematics to quantify alignment between value systems
• Judging Goodness - This post examines how to evaluate moral goodness using Effective Altruism (EA) as case study, empha
• Shrimp Ethics - This post critiques a utilitarian thought experiment claiming we should save 10¹⁰⁰ shrimp over a sin
• The Trolley Problem - This essay deconstructs the famous Trolley Problem beyond its standard utilitarian-versus-deontology
• False Kindness - A sharp, uncompromising critique of the modern tendency to conflate compassion with comfort, this es
• The Edge Cases of Coercion - This comprehensive stress test examines whether the principle “coercion is justified only if pre-con
• Navigating The Multiverse - Agency operates by shifting measure across quantum branches—choosing actions that amplify desired fu
• The Ethics of Affluence - Wealth is morally neutral; its value derives from deployment.
• When All Possibilities Happen - This essay explores the implications of many-worlds quantum mechanics for agency, probability, and e
• Quantum Free Will - This essay resolves the free will vs.
• On What Matters - This essay critiques Derek Parfit’s “On What Matters” through the lens of Conditionalism, arguing Pa
• The Double Helix and the Double Standard - This essay examines the Rosalind Franklin/Watson-Crick DNA discovery controversy as case study in st
• Truth Isn’t Enough - This essay responds to a tweet claiming “smart people obsess over truth at the expense of memetic fi
• Sagency - This essay introduces the neologism “sagency”—fusing “sage” and “agency” to describe power disciplin
• The Quantum Sequence - Major sequence announcement introducing QBU framework in detail.
• The Politics of Envy - This post critiques the modern political tendency to conflate relative inequality with actual harm,
• Agency Conservation - This post resolves the apparent paradox of whether agency maximization can justify parasitism (refus
• The Value Sequence - This comprehensive index organizes Axio’s complete treatment of value theory into five progressive p
• The Value Sequence - This is a comprehensive index post cataloging the entire Value Sequence—Axio’s systematic developmen
• Flourishing and Obligation - This essay critiques Objectivist ethics from an Axionic perspective, acknowledging its strengths (re
• Axionic Agency — Interlude VII - This interlude marks the transition point: after Phases I-VIII, constructing an Axionic Reflective S