What value do you navigate by?

It appears to me that we sapiens need a “North Star” upon which to fix our voyage. We need a reference point upon which we can focus our attention when trying to determine what of value we can and should do in life.

Religion, or God, serves as the compass for some people; for others it is nationalism; for others the guiding value is to own as much good stuff as possible; to others it is power; for some it is family; and I guess there are many other such ultimate values.

I have tried to examine my inner voices to determine just what my primary value is and does it need to be changed. I have determined that, by some turn of events, perhaps completely willy-nilly, my value North Star is life on this planet. My guidance for fixing value is ultimately dependent upon its aiding or hindering life on this planet.

I often speculate that human life is a hindrance to maximizing the ‘good life’, of all life, on this planet. I often speculate that if all life on this planet were given a vote in this matter that they would throw sapiens overboard.

What do you think?

coberstakaDutchuncle

All life on this planet is rather stupid so I dont think they should be given a chance to vote for something like that

I personaly value nothingness as a sorce of truth. But also understand that sometimes the truth is not what a person would want. To obtain total truth one would need imo to lose life itself and that to me is not a truth worthy of obtaining.

Beauty and morality are species of values.

George Santayana says that “all values must be ultimately intrinsic”. He adds that the good, i.e. that which is desired, is good because of its consequences.

Aesthetics is about the perception of values. Aesthetic judgments “are mainly positive, that is, perceptions of good, moral judgments are mainly and fundamentally negative, or perceptions of evil…in the perception of beauty, our judgment is necessarily intrinsic and based on the character of the immediate experience, and never consciously on the idea of an eventual utility in the object, judgments about moral worth, on the contrary, are always based, when they are positive, upon the consciousness of benefits probably involved.”

“Morality is a means and not an end; that it is the price of human non-adaptation, and the consequence of the original sin of unfitness. It is the compression of human conduct within the narrow limits of the safe and possible. Remove danger, remove pain, remove the occasion of pity, and the need of morality is gone. To say “thou shalt not” would then be impertinence.”

If we think about it we can see herein why our moral consciousness recedes as our luxuries increase, and we can see why caring for another is more the characteristic of those who have little and is of lesser value to those who have much.

Quotes from [i]The Sense of Beauty: Being The Outlines of Aesthetic Theory[i] by George Santayana

I agree that good is only good when its results are good. But thats really obv cause if it was the other way around it would be evil lol.

I have found that most things do lay on one side of the plane of good and evil.
If I examine things with the understanding of what is true and what is false I can then build up a foundation of truths. But at some point one side is picked as right above the other. When this happens morality is found.

I like the sayings that go like we are all born good people. I understand that it could be that some people might actualy not be born good. But I think that making the choice to believe all people are good and acting on it is part of what makes a person good.

An example of this would be something like your thoughts on a person like hitler. Do you believe he was a good person? If you cant find a way to say that he was infact a person and infact good you should understand that the actions a person makes in a life does not define them. A person is a person first and the life they live is not about finding out if they are good or evil but instead it is about living a life. We can not all live the same life and in a world full of people some will look moutains full more evil then others while some look like saints. The only real test for if you are good or evil is done on the inside alone.