Categories and Dimensions

Live Long and Prosper

The Needs of the Many

[The] needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few …

— Nicholas Meyer (1945), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, 1982.


[Our] administration favours the many instead of the few
This is why it is called a democracy

— Pericles (c495 – 29 BCE), Funeral Oration, Athens, 431 BCE.


Society is an educational product. …
It is no good asking people what they want …
That is the error of democracy.
You have first to think out what they ought to want — if society is to be saved.
Then you have to: tell them what they want, and see that they get it.

— Herbert Wells (1866 – 1946), The Shape of Things to Come, 1933.


Reformers seek to make things better
Reactionaries, to stop things from getting worse

— peaceandlonglife


Henry Brands (1953) [Historian]:
The essence of democracy is equality.
Everybody gets one vote.
The essence of capitalism is inequality.
Rich people are much more powerful than poor people.
(Sarah Colt, PBS The Gilded Age, 2018)


The Purposes of Society:

• Maximize the benefits of cooperation
• Distribute those benefits fairly
• Minimize free-riding

(Adapted from Dan Kahan & Mary Douglas)

Stratification (Vertical Distribution of Power)
Hierarchy (Freedom for the Few)	Equality (Justice for the Many)
Winners	Losers
Rule Maker	Rule Taker
Privilege	Disadvantage
Deserving	Undeserving
Rich	Poor
Virtue	Vice
Reward	Punish
Tax Cuts	Spending Cuts
Incentives	Deterrents
Carrots	Sticks
Lifters	Leaners
Producers	Parasites

Cohesion (Horizontal Strength of Connection)
Individualism	Collectivism
Competition	Cooperation
Rationality	Morality
Self-interest	Common Interest
Better for Each	Better for All
Egoism	Altruism
Market Norms	Social Norms
Individuality	Community
Independence	Interdependence
Autonomy	Solidarity
Self-Reliance	Mutual Aid
Atomization	Cohesion
Fear	Trust
Private	Public
Privatization	Nationalization
Private Property	Common Wealth

Government (Politics)	Society (Culture)	Economy (Economics)
Conservative (Hierachical Individualism)
Plutocratic Oligarchy	Collectivism	Individualism
Libertarian (Egalitarian Individualism)
Market Democracy	Individualism	Individualism
Progressive (Egalitarian Collectivism)
Social Democracy	Individualism	Collectivism
Authoritarian (Hierarchical Collectivism)
Totalitarian Oligarchy	Collectivism	Collectivism

Socialism (Slavery & Serfdom)	Liberalism (Capitalism)	Conservatism (Feudalism)
Democracy	Plutocracy	Aristocracy
Labor	Capital	Land
Wages	Profits	Rents
Lower Class	Middle Class	Upper Class

Games
Positive Sum	Win-Win
Zero Sum	Win-Lose
Negative Sum	Lose-Lose

(Adapted from Shalom Schwartz in Tim Jackson, Prosperity Without Growth, 2nd Edition, 2017,
Figure 7.2, p 136)

Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970)

The philosophy of the Greeks reveals throughout its stages the influence of a number of dualisms.
In one form or another these have continued to be topics about which philosophers write or argue.
At the basis of them all lies the distinction between truth and falsehood.
Closely connected with it … are the dualisms of good and evil, and of harmony and strife.
Then there [are the dualisms] of appearance and reality … mind and matter, and freedom and necessity.
Further, there are cosmological questions concerning whether things are one or many, simple or complex, and finally the dualisms of chaos and order, and of the boundless and the limit. …

Truth and falsehood are discussed in logic.
Good and evil, harmony and strife, are questions belonging … to ethics.
Appearance and reality, and the question of mind and matter, might be set down as the traditional problems of the theory of knowledge, or epistemology.
The remaining dualisms belong to ontology, or the theory of being.

(Wisdom of the West, 1959, p 14-5)

Climate Briefing 1

John Houghton

Edmund Burke (1729 – 79):
[No one makes] a greater mistake than [he who does] nothing because he could only do so little.

James Lovelock (1919):
[Gaia] is no doting mother tolerant of misdemeanors, nor is she some fragile and delicate damsel in danger from brutal mankind.
She is stern and tough, always keeping the world warm and comfortable for those who obey the rules, but ruthless in her destruction of those who transgress.
Her unconscious goal is a planet fit for life.
If humans stand in the way of this, we shall be eliminated with as little pity as would be shown by the micro-brain of an intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile in full flight to its target.
(The Ages of Gaia, 1995, p 212)

The Unity of the Earth

The Gaia scientific hypothesis [helps us] to recognise two things: …

• the inherent value of all parts of nature, and …
• our dependence on the Earth and on our environment …

(p 204)

Exploitation

Tropical forests … contain perhaps half of all Earth's biological species.
[Only] about half of the mature tropical forests that existed a few hundred years ago still stand.
At the present rate of destruction, all will be gone by the end of the twenty-first century.
(p 198)

[The] amount of fossil fuel that we now burn worldwide every year [injects about a million years worth of fossil carbon into the atmosphere.]
(p 199)

The world's forests and deforestation

The total area covered by forest is almost one-third of the the world's land area, of which 95% is natural forest and 5% planted forest.

• About 47% … are tropical,
• 9% subtropical,
• 11% temperate and
• 33% boreal.

[The] net loss of forest area during the 1990s was an estimated 940,000 km^2 (2.4% of total forest area.) …
Deforestation of tropical forests averaged about 1% per year.

(p 250)

Environmental Values

In the methodology and the practice of science are many assumptions of value. …

• that there is an objective world of value out there to discover,
• that there is value in the qualities of elegance and economy in scientific theory [and]
• that complete honesty and cooperation between scientists [is central] to the scientific enterprise.

(p 206)

Stewardship — Dominion

[The story of the Garden of Eden leaves us] with a picture of the first humans as 'gardeners' of the Earth …
[Seeing the world as a garden suggests] four things:

• A garden provides food and water and other materials to sustain life and human industry. …
  The Earth provides resources of many kinds for humans to use as they are needed.


• A garden is to be maintained as a place beauty. …
  Humans are to live in in harmony with the rest of creation and to appreciate the value of all parts of creation.
  [A] garden is a place where care is taken to preserve the multiplicity of species, in particular those that are most vulnerable. …
  Gardens are meant to be enjoyed.


• A garden is a place where humans [can express their creativity.] …
  [Scientific] and technical knowledge coupled with the enormous variety of the Earth's resources … create new possibilities for life and its enjoyment [as well as great] potential for evil …
  [Good] gardeners intervene in natural process [only] with a good deal of [cautious] restraint.


• A garden is [a place] to be kept so as to be of benefit to future generations.

(pp 208-209)

The Will to Act

We are not short of statements of ideals.
[What is lacking is] the capability and resolve to carry them out. …

[Action] addressing environmental problems depends not only on knowledge … but on the values we place on the environment and our attitudes towards it. …
[What we must recognise is] that, just as

• the totality of damage to the environment is the sum of the damage done by a large number of individuals,
• the totality of action to address environmental problems is the sum of a large number of individual actions to which we can all contribute.

(p 211)

The Precautionary Principle

[Significant] anthropogenic climate change is not an unlikely possibility but a near certainty …
[It] is no change of climate that is unlikely.
The uncertainties that … have to weighed lie in the magnitude of the change and details of its regional distribution. …

An argument … sometimes advanced for doing nothing now is that by the time action [cannot be avoided, better] technical options will [have become] available. …
But [this] argument works [both ways.]
The thinking and … activity generated by considering appropriate actions now … will itself be likely to stimulate the … technical innovation that will be required [later.]
(p 229)

Climate Insurance

[There is a greater than 66% probability that unmitigated] climate change [will,] in the long term … exceed the capacity of natural, managed and human systems to adapt.
(AR4, IPPC, 2007, p 65)

With typical levels of [global] economic growth being between 2-4% per annum, [six economic models have estimated] the cost of [stabilising carbon dioxide levels] at 450 ppm [at] less than one year's economic growth over fifty years [ie < 2% per year].
(p 235)

(Global Warming: The Complete Briefing, 2004)

Background Briefing

ABC Radio National

Malcolm Turnbull (1954):
I regret to say, that a number of the state Labor governments have, over the years, set priorities and renewable targets that are extremely aggressive, extremely unrealistic, and have paid little or no attention to energy security. …

Tony Wood [Director, Energy Program, Grattan Institute]:
The policy that drove the 40% of electricity in South Australia coming from wind was actually a federal government policy introduced originally when John Howard was Prime Minister under a Coalition government for the Renewable Energy Target. …
[Industry then capitalised on the renewable energy target by building wind farms in the state with the most wind, that is, South Australia.]
So I would say that if you wanted to place blame on anybody for undertaking an aggressive renewable energy target and not thinking through the consequences, that blame could just as easily be laid, if not more so, at the foot of the federal government than the state government.
(System Black, 6 November 2016)

Values and Virtues

Live Long and Prosper

[Historically, belief] in God, or in many gods, prevented the free development of moral reasoning.
[Since open disbelief in God] is a recent event … Non-Religious Ethics is at a very early stage.
We cannot yet predict whether, as in Mathematics, we will all reach agreement.
Since we cannot know how Ethics will develop, it is not irrational to have high hopes. …

[Self Interest Theory (S) is the theory of rationality] that gives most importance to:

• the difference between people, or
• the separateness of persons.

S tells me to do whatever will be best for me.
For S, the fundamental units are different lives.
My supreme concern should be that my whole life goes as well as possible.
Each person is rationally required to give to himself, and to his own life, absolute priority.

— Derek Parfit (1942 – 2017), Reasons and Persons, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp 444 & 454.

Four Horsemen of Relational Apocalypse (John Gottman & Robert Levenson)
Criticism	Defensiveness	Contempt	Stonewalling

Agents	Actions	Outcomes
Praise	Right	Good
Blame	Wrong	Bad

	Virtue	Vice
Intellectual	Knowledge	Ignorance
	Reason	Faith
Moral	Kindness	Cruelty
	Wisdom	Folly

Freedom (Philip Pettit)
Neoliberal	Neorepublican
Non-interference	Non-domination
Negative Freedom	Positive Freedom
License	Liberty
Slavery
Freedom to Dominate	Obligation to Submit
Right to Command	Duty to Obey

Enlightenment Values (Steven Pinker)
Reason	Science	Humanism	Progress

Moral Foundations Theory (Jonathan Haidt)
Care	Harm
Fairness	Cheating
Liberty	Oppression
Loyalty	Betrayal
Authority	Subversion
Sanctity	Degradation

Peterson and Seligman
Virtues	Character Strengths
Wisdom	Curiosity Love of learning Judgment Ingenuity Emotional intelligence Perspective
Courage	Valor Perseverance Integrity
Humanity	Kindness Loving
Justice	Citizenship Fairness Leadership
Temperance	Self-control Prudence Humility
Transcendence	Appreciation of beauty and excellence Gratitude Hope Spirituality Forgiveness Humor Zest

Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970)

Derek Parfit (1942 – 2017):
The truth may be disturbing.
Consider the claim that the Universe was not created by a benevolent God.
Many people find this claim disturbing; but this cannot show it to be false.
If some truth is disturbing, this is no reason not to believe it. …

• It might be a reason for trying to conceal this truth from others.
• It might even be a reason for trying to deceive ourselves, so that we cease to believe this truth.

[Wishful] thinking is theoretically irrational, but it may be practically rational [if, for instance,] it was the only way to save ourselves from severe depression.
(p 324, emphasis added)

We ought not to do to our future selves what it would be wrong to do to other people.
(Reasons and Persons, Oxford University Press, 1984, p 320)

John Steinbeck (1902 – 68):
There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue.
There's just stuff people do.
It's all part of the same thing.
And some of the things people do is nice, and some ain't nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say.
(The Grapes of Wrath, 1939, p 28)

Martin Luther King Jnr (1929 – 68):
Ultimately, it isn't so important how long you live.
The important thing is how well you live.

Noam Chomsky (1928):
[We] have two choices:

• we can decide to be pessimistic, decide nothing's possible and quit and help guarantee that the [worst] will happen, or
• we can put in whatever effort we can as individuals to try to improve things and maybe it will make the world better. …

That's not much of a choice.
(Noam Chomsky, American linguist, philosopher & activist, Sunday Profile, ABC Radio National, 6 November 2011)

John Stuart Mill (1806 – 73):
[The] utilitarian standard … enjoins and requires the cultivation of the love of virtue … as being above all things, important to the general happiness. …
(Chapter IV)

The entire history of social improvement has been a series of transitions by which one custom or institution after another, from being a supposed primary necessity of social existence, has passed into the rank of a universally stigmatized injustice and tyranny.
So it has been with the distinctions of

• slaves and freeman,
• nobles and serfs,
• patricians and plebians;

and so it will be … with the aristocracies of color, race, and sex.
(Utilitarianism, Fraser's Magazine, 1961, Chapter V)

Karl Popper (1902 – 94):
Instead of the greatest happiness for the greatest number …
[One] should demand … the least amount of avoidable suffering for all …
(The Open Society and Its Enemies, Volume 1: The Spell of Plato, 1945)

Russel Hardin:
The moral impulse of utilitarianism is constant …
[But] our decisions under it are contingent on our knowledge and scientific understanding.
(Morality within the Limits of Reason, 1990)

George Moore (1873 – 1958):
An ethical law has the nature not of a scientific law but of a scientific prediction …
[It] is always merely probable, although the probability may be very great.
(Principia Ethica, 1903)

Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804):
To help others where one can is a duty, and besides this there are many spirits of so sympathetic a temper that, without any further motive of vanity or self-interest, they find an inner pleasure in spreading happiness around them and can take delight in the contentment of others as their own work.
Yet I maintain that … action of this kind [has] no genuinely moral worth [because] its maxim lacks moral content, namely the performance of such actions, not from inclination, but from duty.
(H J Paton, Translator, Kant, The Moral Law: Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, Hutchinson, 1966, p 10, emphasis added)

Neal Stephenson (1959):
It is upon moral qualities that society is ultimately founded.
All the prosperity and technological sophistication is of no use without that foundation …
(The Diamond Age, Penguin, 1996, p 322)

John Rawls (1921 – 2002):
The natural distribution is neither just nor unjust; nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular position. These are simply natural facts.
What is just and unjust is the way that institutions deal with these facts.
(Quoted by Michael Sandel, Justice: What's A Fair Start?, February 2011)