Post relocated to odedniv.me/blog/shower/definition-of-ethics, go there for an updated version.
Let’s start by observing a very common social convention — dumping the prettiest girl into a volcano for the flower god to feast on, in order for all the flowers to blossom even lovelier this year. Everybody’s doing it, so it’s probably a good idea.
The equation to determine whether a deed is ethical or evil is to objectively sum up all the bad that comes out of doing it, and compare it with how much bad would come out of not doing it. Ethical questions are not about doing good (as recommended as it may be) and they are not about making the better choice — they are about causing no damage.
This definition sounds simple, but we should really take the time to examine it farther with some examples.
- Let’s go back to the common social convention stated above, the bad that comes out of throwing the pretty girl is that the girl dies, while the bad that comes out of not throwing her is allegedly a slightly less colorful village. How do we compare the two outcomes? Everybody is sad if the girl is not thrown but only the girl is sad (for a while) if she is thrown. Well we’ve been dragging this for too long, so the answer is: as far as we can tell death is incomparable to any bad feeling, so an ethical village will have to find something better to do.
- We’ll take a step back to a slower story about a traffic jam, and a driver that sees an easy way to cut through and get 10 cars closer to their destination. When applying the equation here they might think they can get away with it (ethically) — each of the other 10 drivers will lose 30 seconds while they will save 5 minutes, which sums up to exactly zero. Remembering the equation — ethics doesn’t compare good (or profit), it only compares bad.
- A commonly followed book dictates that not all sexual relations are allowed, so followers are often offended by those who practice the forbidden relations. Examining the situation, who is more in a pickle? The one not allowed to ever have sex, or the one surrounded by strangers that… sorry, not sure how to end this sentence, how about a question mark?
- Following #3 at the wardrobe by forcing a gender to wear black on a very sunny day. This enforcement is worst for the unmentioned gender than it would have been for the other if the enforcement had been lifted. However, wearing too little may cause an uncontrollable disruptive chemical reaction in one’s brain which might have a larger damage than covering up a little (depending on the weather).
Mind you that only one example in here has an equation that doesn’t have a zero on both ends (#4), while all examples were/are very common practices in social communities.
Finishing up with a grand sale, read one definition and get two more — an evil deed: any deed that is on the wrong side of the equation of ethics (sum of bad before < sum of bad after), and an evil being: one who conducts evil deeds.
