Building new ethics

Building new ethics on various types of symmetries allow us to re-discover old values such as equality, reciprocity, truth, proportionality, responsibility etc. The new structures of ethics which I am proposing are analogous to those of Nature. This is no accident for Nature has a marked preference for slightly broken symmetries as they foster life and its diversity. This new ethics should guide our actions towards it.

Unlike ancient ethics which determined a target to be reached, this one is merely describing a path worth taking, even if the goal is unattainable.

Slightly broken symmetry is embodied in a symbol of life synonymous with good. An action going in the opposite direction, i.e. towards asymmetry, would lead us from good to evil. Severe asymmetry represents evil: disease, hatred, violence, social inequalities, imbalances of all kinds, irresponsibility, withdrawal into oneself, death etc..

This new ethics system can therefore be summarized as follows:

A real and objective reference like life itself and its potential evolution triggered by light breaks in symmetry. (Away from the old idealistic references like honor or purity or God !)
Freely chosen actions towards slightly broken symmetries.

In this proposal there is no injunction, because the individual’s responsibility is complete and one’s individual freedom is respected. This freedom is given to us spontaneously by nature. This is one of its intrinsic properties: providing space and time for evolution to occur.
These new ethics will be partly undetermined.

I leave you with the pleasure of defining your own values within the framework set by the following symmetries in the following chapters: Equality, Reciprocity, Proportionnality, Responsibility.