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by ajuc 2950 days ago
> One of the easiest way to find meaning then, is to strive to reduce other sentient beings sufferings, and to increase their happiness.

This is basically https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism and the simple counterexample to that is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_monster

At any rate - it's clear to me that these goals are self-created, and different between different people, so claiming them to be universal seems wrong.

1 comments

If you say so, but i don't think other animals and organisms are 'self-creating' the goal I described.

They come with that built into their neurochemistry, and so do we.

It's the closest thing to a universal moral system I could think of.

And I don't see it as utilitarianism, I was thinking of Buddhist ethics which also contains other precepts to counteract some of the pathological cases in utilitarianism.[1]

[1] Does it do so perfectly? Probably not, but it attempts to be a practical set of precepts, you still have to use your brain.