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my 10 commandments of reason

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James Bond

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Tell me what you think.

Objective ethics:

1. Keep your happiness first

2. Use your independent reason

3. Rationally engage in reality

4. Trade value for value

5. Take pride in your work

6. Live fully/with purpose

7. Always be courageous/honest

8. Never help or harm others (see 2)

9. Never initiate force/violate rights

10. Distinguish ignorance from evasion

edit: I guess 'commandments' is the wrong word here..haha

Edited by James Bond
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edit: I guess 'commandments' is the wrong word here..haha

"If I were to speak your kind of language, I would say that man's only moral commandment is: Thou shalt think. But a 'moral commandment' is a contradiction in terms. The moral is the chosen, not the forced; the understood, not the obeyed. The moral is the rational, and reason accepts no commandments."

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"If I were to speak your kind of language, I would say that man's only moral commandment is: Thou shalt think. But a 'moral commandment' is a contradiction in terms. The moral is the chosen, not the forced; the understood, not the obeyed. The moral is the rational, and reason accepts no commandments."

Good quote. Not really necessary, since I edited my post before you put this up, but thanks.

What do you think of the 'code' listed above? I'm certainly not trying to condense all of Oism; I am trying to have a reminder of what Oism means in my life. Anything you'd add? Subtract? Reword?

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3. Rationally engage in reality

8. Never help or harm others (see 2)

9. Never initiate force/violate rights

10. Distinguish ignorance from evasion

3. What does that mean? I understand the proposition made but I can't imagine how to act accordingly. Maybe there's a better phrasing, maybe it's just because I'm not a native english speaker.

8. "Never help others" is just wrong. "Never harm others" is probably meant by nr. 9. Maybe formulate "Never let the needs of others be a motive for action."

9. That strikes me as too abstract to be used as a guideline for action. Maybe formulate: Never harm others, never take what is not yours.

10. Same as 3. I don't get it.

Edit: The other points look good to me.

Edited by Tordmor
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Never help others?

Maybe more like 'Never sacrifice yourself in order to help others'.

Personally, I like helping others sometimes, and they'll often help me in return if I ask.

Edit: whoops, just re-read #8 better. Personally, I wouldn't keep it exactly the way it is.

Edited by miseleigh
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If you are looking for a guideline to summarize the Objectivist ethics, we already have a set of concepts for that: they're called virtues.

They are useful because we already have words for them, and because the are just six corollary virtues (plus the chief virtue of rationality) - any more, and you'd run into the crow epistemology.

You can read about them on the wiki: http://wiki.objectivismonline.net/wiki/Virtues

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Never help others?

Help, in this case denotes sacrifice. I put in a 'see 2' caveat, which means never help others unless it's rational.

If you are looking for a guideline to summarize the Objectivist ethics, we already have a set of concepts for that: they're called virtues.

They are useful because we already have words for them, and because the are just six corollary virtues (plus the chief virtue of rationality) - any more, and you'd run into the crow epistemology.

You can read about them on the wiki: http://wiki.objectivismonline.net/wiki/Virtues

I think I included all/most of those principles in my list of 10.

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