Integral ethics?

http://fication.gaia.com — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:20:02 GMT

Inspired from the Integral Vegan-thread, cross-posted from my blog at Integrallife.com:

This is a suggestion to the 'why' behind an integral ethics. You can see it as in input-output model on the most fundamental conditions of a human being. Input being what you need to survive and produce and output being the thing you produce - the product.

For example, the input-output model of a tree is:

Input: Energy (light) + Water + Carbon Dioxide

Output: Glucose + Oxygen

This is called photosynthesis. It's the trees job. And for that we are grateful!

Here is the input-output model of a human being.

Input: We consume energy, e.g. glucose. We have to. Even a buddhist monk is dependent on the rice that people put in his/her bowl. No matter how you put it we cost energy - we eat stuff, we produce garbage and waste, we exhale carbon dioxide, we heat our houses and we use transportation and we buy computers in order to communicate. It's also a good idea to use as small amount of energy (work) as possible to get energy (food).

Output: The output is what we produce. So, what's our product? What do we do? We grow! We increase our awareness, our complexity, embrace, compassion and ability to take perspectives. We both produce, and are containers of awareness.

Our job is to transform energy into awareness.

Here is my suggestion on an approach to integral etics. Given the above conditions, I think it's a wise idea to try to maximize the output for a given amount of input. Meaning: Don't use more energy than you have to and transform as much of it as possible to awareness!

Tags: ethics, vegitarianism, energy, sustainability

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Integral ethics?