On having a good character - a new way of looking at Ethics

[James_S_Saint]

@thinkdr

Jim, I believe you have made a major contribution to the science of Ethics.

Well thank you. I should have by now. I have been at it long enough (in both theory and practice).

@thinkdr

And I thank you for it, and wish you well in your future endeavors: May you have joy throughout the day, every day

…and may you as well.

@thinkdr

We need not look upon others as our “enemy.” Instead we can define each of them as “a fellow human being, vulnerable and capable of suffering, probably misguided in some ways.” We are all prone to exaggeration, conclusion-leaping, fumbling, making stupid mistakes - perhaps a touch of paranoia.

Agreed.

@thinkdr

cooperation is central to ethical living, to living an ethical life.

Very much.

@thinkdr

Does it, though, also make the point that there is not much use to talking to the unwise - who will probably be bored by your message, misunderstand it, or will be prematurely dismissive of it, or will be focused on their own narrow concerns and not be open to listening to you?

It means that a wise man does nothing in vain. He says nothing in vain. His joy is seeing exactly how much he is accomplishing (“progressing”) with each tiny movement and syllable. He doesn’t turn down roads that do not lead him to where he is going. But then again, he does not presume to know what is at the end of every road. When in doubt, the wise man seeks only to enjoy the exploration. It is hard to explore in vain, no matter the road.

@thinkdr

If I understood the calculus application, here is how I might phrase it:

Let’s say there are x waking hours in a day; and that joy (by which I mean enjoyment, happiness, pleasure, satisfaction, delight, entertainment, amusement, sublimity, ecstasy, etc.) - joy ranges from 1 to 5 - with 5 being the most. Now, at the end of the day, after x hours have elapsed, sum up the total joy-score you experienced so far, from the beginning of the day, as you rated each hour from 1 to 5. Divide that number by x in order to find your max-joy score.

I have to apologize for describing that integral incorrectly. What I described would be the “running average”. The integral is actually the total accumulation, “the sum of the infinitesimal components”. So let me give you an example of a typical guidance for a first time student:

Get a new accounting notebook. Get a watch with a one hour chime alarm. For practice for a week, each time the watch chimes, think back over the last hour and try to gauge the approximate amount of joy you experienced during that hour on a scale from -100 to +100. Do this for 12 hours out of every day.

At the end of each day sum that day’s scores. For an average for the day, then divide that sum by the number of hours involved, 10. That will be your average for that day. Each day might have a total that is anywhere from -700 on a really, really bad day to to perhaps +700 on a really good day (although more likely to be around +/- 200). Then your daily average might be anywhere from -70 to +70. Keep in mind that you want to be honest but also want to encourage yourself to maintain a high score. Practice trying to get the honest scores for each day as high as possible without doing anything that cannot be continued throughout your life. The practice is training which becomes habit. Feeling more joyous is a good habit (not merely psychologically or spiritually, but medically - specifically for the adrenal gland and its many hormones).

And then at the end of the week, sum all of the days together and divide by 70 hours. That will be your week’s average. And by the end of that week, you should be able to look back on your life during that time and get a more clear picture of exactly what is inspiring more or less joy in you. But be careful not to blame your lack of joy on others. How much joy you feel is largely up to you (although not entirely). If you get angry at others because they keep you from your highest joy, it will be your anger that is condemning you from making progress in the future.

Imagine yourself continuing to do that throughout your entire life. Each month you total and average. Each year you total and average. Each decade you total and average. And of course only those with especially totals will need to total and average each century.

As you practice for as many weeks as it might take, your mind in begin to do the math internally and accomplish more joy automatically without you having to actually calculate it cognitively. You would not know what the exact numbers are, but you would certainly be able to sense that you are in control of your joy or at very least understand what is preventing you from attaining more bliss.

IJOT is the total sum of all of the hours that you estimated since you began the program. To maximize IJOT is the goal: MIJOT.

On a different note:

Socially you will discover that in order to obtain the highest possible total IJOT throughout your life, MIJOT, you must maintain a harmony (not a stagnation, but a strategic momentum - a “dance”) with your surroundings and especially any people involved. And when you see that in fact all of those living around you are actually subconsciously trying to do that same thing that you are (although most often unwittingly and inconsiderately), you can realize that they benefit most by being in harmony with you as well … but they seldom actually understand why. So teaching them cognitively (as I have just explained) and helping them with the practice, makes the degree of harmonizing exponentially increase for everyone involved.

Every task that you have in your life could use the cooperative acceptance and/or assistance of others. The others have that same concern. And that is WHY it has been suggested for many millennia that people should be considerate of others (“do unto others…”). It has never been merely about a great prophet spouting his utopic imaginings or commandments from God. It has been about the actual analytical reality of every living soul’s situation with both nature and Man.

A good governance doesn’t merely know these things, but takes the management time (even computer time) to carefully analyze which path will most probably lead to the greatest total IJOT for all it governs. If any governance is not seeking MIJOT, it is betraying itself and all it governs. And machines have no purpose but to serve Man’s MIJOT goal.

@thinkdr

Did you attain the maximum joy-per-day possible? And do you realize - are you aware - that every opportunity for service to others is a potential source of joy? Ethics, the science, does not recommend that one be a martyr. Yet there is a satisfaction in knowing that you have been really helpful to someone, and thus have made a difference. You did not live in vain.

I suspect that the highest joy possible on any one day would be obtained through serious drugs. The problem of course, is that those days are numbered. The person who obtains a +100 on any given day, will probably not gain a high MIJOT unless he obtained it through a very unique and exceedingly clever process.

@thinkdr

And are you aware that if you have more years in your life your max-joy score can get larger? And if you deliberately aim for health, and for what makes us healthy, your chances of living longer are increased; isn’t that true? And if you share, your score goes up. If you work to find common ground you raise your score.

Exactly.

At the end of you life, if that time should come, you should hold proud your MIJOT score and add one more day’s points for being able to. MIJOT is that famously elusive “Meaning of Life”.

@thinkdr

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My wife heard me speak aloud about the max-joy score, and what went in to calculating it, and she exclaimed: [size=100]"Just live "[/size]

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That is what you are doing. I am only trying to straighten out the path a bit for those who don’t know precisely how to “just live” in such a complex world. Such analytical thoughts are merely for those who lead the way.