😇 😈
Why is
ETHICS
Alexei’s Primer on Ethics | Part 2
important?

Why is Ethics ⚠important?
I will give you 4 reasons:
🥁 Group cohesion
🎖 Reputation management
🚦 Decision-making
🏆 Meaning in Life

🥁
Group cohesion

Cooperation can create
much more bene
fi
ts than
con
fl
ict, but how do we
make sure individuals
cooperate, instead
of competing?

Enter moral codes: a mechanism
of social control that creates
willingness to 🤗stay in the
group, 🤝trust each other and
participate in 🏟communal affairs

Control has many bene
fi
ts.
Haredi jews, orthodox
adherents to the Torah
moral code, is a peaceful
and highly cohesive
community with high
levels of trust and
close social bonds.

The
fl
ip-side is that social
control can be 🚫oppressive,
👁totalitarian and create
con
fl
icts with other groups.

This is a page from
the Moral Code of the
Builder of Communism.
It literally says
“intolerance
to the enemies”.

Morality binds
and blinds.
JONATHAN HAIDT
Author of Moral
Foundations Theory

Paradoxically,
morality itself
has both 😇positive
and 😈negative side.
It is, therefore,
important to recognise
the costs of morality.

The primary
job of a founder
is to give
the group
a well-desiged
📚moral code

Otherwise ⚔mayhem
would ensue

Google was founded on the premise “Don’t be
😈evil”, but that is fools errand. Innovators upset
the balance of power, they will be evil to some
people. It’s probably ok to be slightly evil.

This is the founding
manifesto of a self-
managing company 🔗Morning
Star. I’d say these are
pretty solid principles
and the costs are made
clear: commitments
are there to be kept.
1. People should
not use force
or coercion against
others; all interactions
should be voluntary.
2. People should honour
the commitments they
make to others.

So, whether you’re joining or
founding a collective, be sure you
understand the 😈😇moral equation:
MORAL BENEFITS
like exciting 🚀mission
MORAL COSTS
like 😓awful work-life balance

🎖
Reputation

By looking 😇good
we attract 😇nicer,
more 🤝cooperative
partners.
Thus moral behaviour
may be chie
fl
y
motivated by concern
for one’s 🎖reputation.
😇
😇
😇
🤝 🤝
😇
😇
🤝
😇
😇
😇
🤝

Also, appeals
to 😇morality make
people 🪄charismatic.
Moral conviction is
one of the secrets
to social in
fl
uence.
https://sites.insead.edu/facultyresearch/research/
fi
le.cfm?
fi
d=56808

📰 👨⚖ 🏋
Good PR
is good for
sales and
recruitment
Lower
regulatory
risks
More cooperative
corporate culture
leads to higher
productivity
http://ethicalsystems.org/content/ethics-pays
There’s been many attempts to
build a business case for ethics

Ethics is long-
term greed.
NAVAL RAVIKANT
Entrepreneur and investor

Corporations use
😇ethics for a variety
of self-serving
purposes, like…

CAUSE PROMOTION
Colin Kaepernick took a
knee and got himself
fi
red.
Was that a morally laudable
act? Nike thought it was
and made him the star of
their marketing campaign

CAUSE-RELATED
MARKETING
(PRODUCT)RED – Apple co-
branding contributes to
the Global Fund's
fi
ght
against AIDS, and helps
to move some merchandise

CORPORATE
SOCIAL
MARKETING
Patagonia takes a stand
against mindless consumerism
by dissuading you from
buying this otherwise
awesome jacket

SOCIALLY
RESPONSIBLE
BUSINESS
PRACTICES
Companies love to experiment
with sustainable packaging.
It is almost there but not
quite yet, and it’s been like
this for the past decade.

CORPORATE
PHILANTHROPY
Amazon tries to get out
of moral bankruptcy by
doing something good for
a change. Sure it’s just
0.5% but consider their
volumes!

https://hbr.org/2021/01/volunteer-programs-that-employees-can-get-excited-about
Nearly half of U.S. companies
offered community volunteer
pr
o­
grams in 2018. Why? They
boost productivity, increase
employee engagement, improve
hiring and retention.
WORKFORCE
VOLUNTEERING

🤥
There are many ways all these
can go 🤮wrong. And perhaps,
most of it is virtue signalling:
🌿green- and whatever-washing.
But some of it are genuine
attempts to do 😇good

🚦
Decision-making

How can I decide
with 🤯unpredictable
future and so many
variables to
🧮account for?

Every course on
decision-making
teaches the same:
decision is not
an 💰outcome, it’s
a 🛣process. Just
follow the steps.

The future is only partially
predictable. You might get
🎲unlucky, but that’s beyond
your control. Focus on things
you can control.

Do the duty and
come what may.
BALDWIN IV
King of Jerusalem

But
what
is my
duty?

Moral 🎓philosophy answers exactly
that question. Deontology,
one of the 3 major approaches
to moral reasoning, literally
means “the study of duty”.

Nothing fancy, just a few
sound principles. It greatly
simplifies decision-making.
No need to make complex
calculations if you can
follow a rule. Want an
example?
HAVE A PERSONAL
MORAL CODE

1. An action has moral worth if it
is done for the sake of duty.
2. We should always treat people
as an end in itself and never
merely as means to an end
3. An action is morally correct
if its principle can be used
as a universal law.
IMMANUEL KANT
Father of deontology

It makes you
predictable,
consistent, and
if the rule is good
enough, on average
results might be
even better than
with 🧮calculations.
More on this →

The question is, which moral code
are you going to follow?
✝ ? ☪ ? 🕉 ? ☸ ? 🔯 ? ☯ ? 📕 ? 🫀 ? 🍹 ?

🏆
Meaning in Life

✝☪🕉
☸🔯
In traditional societies a lot
of meaning is provided by religion
and spirituality. Life is seen as
a preparation for, well, after-life.

But religion is in decline,
especially in wealthier nations.
If current trends continue,
religion will go extinct worldwide
in a couple of centuries.
https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/fora99&div=123&id=&page=

Searching for new sources
of meaning beyond religion
is often dubbed “soul-
searching”. But what
is a soul, exactly?
🔎
🔭
🔬
🔦

In Christianity, a soul is what
gets judged on the Final
Judgement day. It is judged by
the soul’s 😇😈ethics, its moral
behaviour and motivations.

You can go and ask people
a simple question: “Suppose
reincarnation exists. When a
person’s soul reincarnates, how
do we know it’s the same soul?”

In reply people mostly name
the soul’s moral qualities:
honesty, courage, generosity…
Even Tibetan Buddhists, who supposedly reject
the very notion of “self” do the same.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24503450/

Across many studies, morality invariably comes
as the most important factor de
fi
ning The True Self.
CHANGE IN MORALITY IS THE MOST
IMPORTANT CHANGE OF TRUE SELF
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24503450/

What gives gives people the sense
of authenticity and meaning in
life is behaviour conforming to
their ideas about the 😇good.
Our true self is our moral self.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.2820
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-57514-055

Perhaps, in a post-religious
world, your moral duty is
TO DEFINE YOUR
MORAL DUTY?

Perhaps, with some help from
👨🎨art, 👩🔬science: biology,
sociology, anthropology,
psychology and maybe a tinge
of 😇😈moral 🎓philosophy? 😉

So, here are at least four
reasons to study ethics:
🥁 Group cohesion
🎖 Reputation management
🚦 Decision-making
🏆 Meaning in Life
Now tell me, is there anything
more important than that?

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ALEXEI KAPTEREV