For the sake of some idle discussion, I'd be interested in getting an analysis of the following framework for understanding morality. This seems to me a valid common sense starting point, combining the genealogical with the rational, but how much of human behavior does it realistically stand the chance of informing?


Questions of ethics reduce to judgements about human behavior. Fundamentally, we must decide if an action is likely to garner a desired outcome; when habitualization of an act or procedure is revealed to more likely result in the attainment of what we aim for, that activity is preferred and typically becomes an inveteracy. When habits have implications for our wider social group, they become a matter of appropriateness in relationship to the collective, which is the origin of interpreting behavior as having ethical import, constrained not just by functional consequences for ourselves but also the impact on those around us.

A vast spectrum exists between, on one side, high functionality with minimal social ramifications, and on the other, high social appeal with minimum functional necessity. Constructing a makeshift shelter while stranded in the woods is vital to survival, and has little social meaning besides sustaining ourselves until rescued so as to resume a community role as well as reunite with family and friends, almost non-causal in these circumstances. Waving goodbye has no practicality beyond the casual social meaning it conveys, and completely dispensing with it would lack serious repercussions, but we like it so much that it is a near universal symbol of affection. Chatting with strangers potentially has the positive effect of increasing social health in the community, but can also sometimes prompt negative feedback or in rare cases attract unwanted attention that might even get us attacked, so its ethical significance is ambiguous, left to informal, personal preference. Parking close to an intersection could be favorable in situations where it is the only spot available, but reduces commuter visibility in such a way that safety is jeopardized, so everyone is expected to learn the public regulations that sanction law enforcement to cite or even tow offending vehicles. But often the actual danger is almost negligible, such as in remote residential areas, so police do not trouble with punishing an occasional violation despite the law, for there are much more important issues to surveil than parking behavior in someone's out of the way cul-de-sac for instance, unless the residents call in a complaint. Human ethical standards, codes, systems of rules and associated behaviors essentially arise from our effort to balance assessed consequences for ourselves with communal consequences, which often involves a measure of complexity.