Thread by @CraigBiddle

Morality is not subjective, but objective—not created by the human mind, but discovered by it.🧵

Just as truth is discovered via evidence and the principle of non-contradiction, so morality is discovered via the requirements of human life and the principle of non-sacrifice. 1/12

What, in principle, supports and promotes human life given the kind of animal we are? What, in principle, harms or destroys it?

The answers to these questions determine what is objectively good or moral, and what is objectively bad or immoral. 2/12

Thinking, producing goods or services, trading value for value, judging people rationally, refusing to pretend that facts are other than they are, respecting individual rights—these kinds of actions support and promote human life, and thus are moral. 3/12

Refusing to think, being a parasite, refusing to judge, pretending that facts are other than they are, violating rights (e.g., killing, raping, stealing, defrauding)—these kinds of actions harm and destroy human life, and thus are immoral. 4/12

Moral virtues are certain kinds of facts—namely, the kinds of actions that, in principle, support and advance human flourishing given the kinds of animals we are: beings who survive and thrive by using our faculty of reason to gain and/or keep life-serving values. 5/12

Eg: Acting to achieve and maintain a life-serving career, wonderful relationships, a rights-protecting political system—these are moral actions. If you characteristically take such actions—refusing ever to take irrational, anti-life actions—then you are fully moral. 6/12

If and to the extent a person takes irrational, anti-life actions—e.g., refuses to think, refuses to be productive, “lives” parasitically, violates rights—he is acting immorally. If he does so characteristically, he is completely immoral. 7/12

Seen this way, morality is a science: It’s the science of human flourishing.

Choices and actions that sustain and further human life are moral—those that harm or destroy human life are evil—and the “grays” in-between are degrees of immorality. 8/12

Because there is no need to take anti-life actions, there is no need ever to be anywhere in the gray area.

Moral virtue consists in recognizing this and always using your best judgment to take life-serving actions while respecting the needs of others to do the same. 9/12

This morality (rational egoism) is also the basis for the principle of individual rights: the recognition of the fact that physical force used against a person stops him from acting on his judgment—his basic means of living—and thus must be banned from social relationships. 10/12

On the basis of this morality, human beings can achieve individual prosperity and social harmony—with no one sacrificing anyone to anyone, and everyone living as he or she chooses to live, confined only by the equal rights of others. 11/12

The bottom line: Human life doesn’t require human sacrifice. It requires rational thinking, rational action, and a social-political system that bans force from human relationships so that people can live fully as human life requires. 12/12 #ReasonRevival #AynRand #RationalEgoism