1.5.12.1 Relationships between Core Values

Version 1.0 October 2022                             (Previous Version)

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In this Chapter 1.5 we present REALigion’s core ethical values of Love, Equality and Responsibility.  These values impact on what it means to value Life, our fourth core ethical value.

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●   Love means that we care for others: we choose to act to minimize harm and suffering and promote happiness and well-being.  This means that we care whether others live, we encourage others to join us in the struggle to live.  Fundamentally, most people do want to live, ie they value Life, so valuing Love means we should help them to do this.  We are also concerned with cases in which others are suffering so much that they wish to end their lives, which we address elsewhere. 

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●   Equality means that if we value our life, we must also value the lives of others. 

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●   Responsibility means that we should impose on ourselves and others a duty of care towards others, including maintaining life (when it is appropriate, not as an absolute), accepting sanctions, even if it is only personal regret, and promoting sanctions if we fail to do so.

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To make valid ethical choices we need an understanding of the situation and the available options. 

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●   The core value of Love requires that we know the causes of harm and suffering, as well as happiness and wellbeing, sufficiently well to make an informed decision. 

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●   The core value of Equality requires that we can determine what interests of others apply, and their impact, sufficiently well to make an informed decision.

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●   The core value of Responsibility requires that we can determine potentially effective, relevant, proximate interventions, sufficiently well to make an informed decision.

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Far too often, the harm that is done in the world is due to stupidity, ignorance and thoughtlessness rather than nastiness or evil intent.  We need to be as aware and as well informed as we can be in practice.  We don't have to be experts, or definitively correct every time, but we do need to have enough understanding to make effective choices. 

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Working this out involves pragmatic core values:

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●   For any action to be effective we must be able, at least in principle, to work out what is true.  It must be valid to seek the truth.  We have to value Truth to make appropriate ethical decisions.

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●   For our ethical choices to be valid they must be effective: they have to take into account the relevant facts of situation, including the relevant causal relationships, and whether there are options available.  We need to value Reality, our shared, public reality, so we can discuss, agree or disagree on what the relevant facts are, and act upon our best understanding.

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●   We need to understand the limits of our knowledge and the possibility that some of our choices could be wrong.  Ideally we could estimate the degree of uncertainty involved: as the risk of our action being effective rises our confidence in that choice wanes.  Perhaps we should do nothing.  Perhaps the certainty of a disastrous outcome means we should do something less disastrous.

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The other two core values are Beauty (discussed in Chapter 1.6 on Aesthetics) and Hope (discussed in Part 3 on History).  These we may refer to as Inspiring values: they inspire us in certain ways.

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●   Beauty can be ‘natural’ or ‘artificial’, existing with or without human effort.  We see beauty in our shared Reality and it lifts our spirits.  We make choices to experience or create Beauty, so it is a core value.

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●   Hope inspires us to continue to live, seek the truth and stay in touch with reality.  It provides the confidence that ethical choices based on Love, Equality and Responsibility are valid.

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How Other Values Fit with Core Values

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Some people might suggest additional core values: if they are valid values we need to consider how they fit in our value system and the relationships between them.

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Self-fulfillment

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Some might say we should have as a core value self-fulfillment.  In REALigion we interpret a lack of self-fulfillment as involving more pain or suffering, or less happiness or well-being, than we prefer, so self-fulfillment is a derived value rather than a core value, derived from the core values of Love and Equality.  Self-fulfillment is generally thought of as a satisfying state in which not only our basic needs are met, but we have a sufficient level of agency, that we have control of our lives and can be creative (if we wish).  Valuing Love means that we promote, as an ideal, self-fulfillment, in that we want others to achieve self-fulfillment, meaning the absence of suffering and a high level of well-being.  And treating ourselves as equal, we seek self-fulfillment for ourselves also.

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Freedom

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Some people, especially Americans or those enamored of American ideals, suggest that Freedom is a fundamental value.  It is highly significant, but not a core value. 

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*    The freedom Americans support is political freedom, in general to be able to say or do what you want, more or less, especially in matters of conscience, and particularly religion and politics. 

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*    This was a founding ideal of the USA when it split off from the British Empire in the 1700s CE, because the European colonizers who founded America objected to the lack of such freedoms in Europe, and many had escaped to America to get away from the ‘old world’ restrictions.  So it became part of the foundational myth or narrative of America. 

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*    Freedom in the USA includes extensive freedom in business and commerce.  The American freedom does not generally include freedom from hunger or other civil or economic rights.  The emphasis on freedom in health care has led the USA to have bad health outcomes at double to cost compared to Europe and other English speaking countries.  It has allowed the mega rich to dominate elections in the USA and determine national policy.  It has encouraged white supremacists and others to deny the outcome of national elections, despite there being no evidence of electoral fraud, and an attempted insurrection against the US Capital.

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*    Many Americans don't realize that political freedoms are now perhaps more widespread in Europe and other English speaking countries, especially if you consider social mobility (the ability of poorer people to rise up the socioeconomic ladder), fairer elections, greater human rights (eg to abortion) and more equal societies.  And democratic freedoms are gradually extending throughout Africa, South America and Asia, even as they are going backwards in Russia, China and some other countries.

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*    In REALigion we value Freedom, of course.  But our core pragmatic values of Truth, Diversity and Reality mean we value the scientific and historical consensus, when it exists, rather than the right to hold fantastic conspiracy theories.  Our core ethical values of Life, Love, Equality and Responsibility mean we believe all people are entitled to decent medical care, not just the wealthy and those with a job whose employer provides medical insurance: and we believe doctors should determine what treatments you get, not insurance companies.  We believe workers are entitled to be treated fairly, as equals, not sacked on a whim.  We believe that companies and corporations are not citizens with rights like real people.

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*    We value Freedom as an ancillary value: it supports our core values, but the idea of Freedom can also be used to support bad ends, such as opposing universal health care and allowing capitalist corporations to harm people and the environment in a ‘free’ market, and to justify groundless opinions that can lead to social harm. 

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*    In REALigion we value Diversity, which includes freedom of conscience, thought, expression and association.  Our core value of Love includes reducing the suffering associated with all forms of oppression – valuing Freedom.  The flip side of Freedom is Responsibility: the responsibility to use the freedoms wisely, and not impinge on the freedoms of others or degrade the environment in which they live.  We act responsibly to support other people in need, because we value Equality, at a minimal cost to our freedom. 

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Truth and Love

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Some people, such as a recent Pope, express their core values as being simply Truth and Love.  There’s nothing wrong with Truth and Love as values, but they are insufficient on their own. 

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The ideal of Truth has been used to say there is only one Truth and any disagreement is not tolerated.

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●   The Christian Church, since its inception 2,000 years ago, has fought bitterly over what is the correct view of Jesus, God and moral behaviour.  Those who disagreed with the current dominant faction were called heretics, and many were cruelly tortured to death.

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●   In all Communist countries, the only Truth tolerated was that favoured by the dominant leaders.  Dissenters were called revisionists, splittists, or enemies of the people, and many were banished, imprisoned or killed.

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●   In mid-twentieth century America, in the era of McCarthyism, the only Truth publicly tolerated was right wing anti-Communist conservatism.  The period was characterized by heightened political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals, often involving false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, related to anarchism, communism, and socialism.  Inquisitions conducted by Senator McCarthy as chair of the federal US House of Representatives so-called “Un-American Activities Committeeâ€� led to many public servants, actors, writers and others having their careers and lives destroyed. 

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The ideal of Love has been used as an excuse for controlling behaviour over women, children, indigenes, the mentally ill, and religious followers.

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●   Domineering, possessive men who abuse women with controlling behaviour often justify their bad behaviour by saying something to the effect of I’m only doing this because I love you.

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●   All around the world, all through time, parents have unfairly, improperly restricted children’s behaviour, caused immense pain and suffering and prevented them from flourishing.  By this we do not mean basic socialization of children but rather excessive punishments for minor infractions of the rules, preventing children taking up careers or choosing who they marry, forcing (especially) daughters to be domestic slaves, and so on.  Often this is justified as being in the child’s best interests, and supposedly done out of ‘love’.

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●   European colonists, sometimes well-meaning people, fueled by Christian missionary zeal and delusions of the superiority of the white ‘race’, rounded up indigenous peoples, forced them onto ‘reservations’, banned speaking native languages and cultural practices, stole their children and forced ‘white’ education onto them, and employed them in menial unpaid positions or treated them as slaves.  Those who (naturally) objected to this treatment were abused, imprisoned or killed.  This was often justified as ‘saving’ the heathen races, all done in the name of love.

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●   Mentally ill people, often severely depressed, or suffering psychotic delusions; others simply with a low IQ, some so-called ‘hysterical’ women, and some gay or lesbian people, were imprisoned with other unfortunates, with a complete loss of dignity and agency.  So called treatment included large electric shocks to the brain, which was too often ineffective, and despite what authorities claimed, was at least until the 1980s used for behaviour control, effectively as punishment.  Physical, sexual and mental abuse was common.  Locking these people up was deemed to be the best thing for them – all done in the name of love.

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●   Religious leaders have caused immense harm, despite their best intentions, simply by instructing their followers according to their faith.  Arbitrary restrictions on behaviour, and suppressing normal thoughts and emotions, are common in all religions.  We are not talking here about reinforcing social rules about lying, stealing, cheating or murder, but restrictions on behaviour, such as dancing, restrictions on clothes, such as wearing a hijab or head scarf, restrictions on adults having consensual sex, banning masturbation, suppressing sexual fantasies, suppressing doubts about God’s existence, making people feel guilty or worthless because they are insufficiently humble, or have thoughts.  Breaches of these restrictions can lead to beatings, imprisonment, torture and death.  These are not trivial matters.  But the rules are made and enforced by religious leaders in the name of supposedly loving gods.

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*    A large proportion of Catholic priests and brothers have notoriously been found to have sexually abused children and adult parishioners, and such bad behaviour is likely to be widespread in other religions but hasn’t come to light in their less open communities.  We do not pretend that these are purported by the perpetrators to be expressions of Love.  However, they do reflect the reality that religious leaders who would claim to value Love often don’t.

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In general, in such circumstances, Equality and Diversity have been ignored: the aim of controlling behaviour over women and children ignores their personhood, and causes harm.  The delusion of racial, cultural, parental, male or individual superiority has prevented the perpetrators from seeing the Reality, from seeing that the goals were flawed and the methods ineffective, and the suffering immense and unwarranted, even allowing for the state of knowledge at the time, because there were other people at the time who knew it was wrong!  Responsibility, defined by whether a proximate intervention is potentially effective in changing unwanted behaviour, has been ignored – the effectiveness of ‘treatments’ and ‘education’ and other interventions ignored.  Such abuses in the name of Love destroy Hope and lead to despair.

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So Truth and Love are not enough on their own – unless we extend their meaning. 

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●   When the Pope says Truth, we could interpret this as referring to all our pragmatic core values: Truth, Diversity and Reality.  In common parlance, most people don't distinguish Truth and Reality – truth is taken to cover the true facts of reality.  However, in REALigion we do distinguish between Truth and Reality:

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*    Valuing Truth is saying we choose to not restrict ourselves to a view of a world that is deterministic, probabilistic, or completely random (arbitrary or chaotic).   Despite the dilemma, we choose to value the Truth, to act as though it is valid to seek and speak the truth.

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*    Valuing Reality is saying we choose to believe that, despite appearances and the difficulties of determining what underlies the appearances, one of our core choices is to act as though there is a public reality that we can share and discuss with others.  We shall not be blinded by the complexity of the matter, or misled by the existence of disagreements about the facts of the world.  We shall not give up in despair, so that everyone’s opinion of reality is equally valid, so the only right is might, or worse, there is no right at all.  By all means you can have your own opinion, but you can't have your own facts: we can debate what the facts are about our shared reality.  We extend what we mean by valuing Reality to include not only the core choice, but also the set of commonly agreed facts, according the scientific consensus (where it exists), long term global history, and our informed common sense.

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●   When the Pope says Love, we could interpret this as referring to all our ethical core values: Life, Love, Equality and Responsibility.  In common parlance, many people will think Love covers sustaining life and treating people equally (at least in some dimensions).  Many people will also thing that teaching children about Responsibility is a loving thing to do.

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*    The examples above show why Love is not enough and we need to distinguish between Life, Love, Equality and Responsibility.  (See also Subsections 1.5.8.8 on why love is not enough, 1.5.9.1 on why equality is not enough, and 1.5.9.11 on why love and equality are not enough.)

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●   Our core inspirational values, Beauty and Hope, could be covered by Truth and Love.

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*    Many would say that the Truth is Beautiful and Beauty is Truth.  Discovering or realizing a profound truth can be an epiphany – a moment of sudden and great realization.  It can be inspirational, it feels elegant – well-formed and beautiful.  Similarly great art – perhaps the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso’s Guernica (1937 CE) which depicts suffering after the bombing of civilians in the town Guernica by the Nazi government during the Spanish Civil War – is often seen to be not always beautiful in the simplistic sense of attractive or promoting joy, but to be depicting an edifying truth.

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*    Many would also say that Love without Hope is meaningless.  But Jesus distinguished between Faith, Hope and Love.  And we distinguish between Love and Hope, one as a core ethical – philosophical – choice and the other as an emotional or attitudinal choice justified by long term global history.  One could behave lovingly – maximising well-being, minimising harm – while still despairing of the future.  Hope motivates us to take action, because it might be effective.  Love leads us to act, out of empathy or concern, even in hopeless situations.

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So we can understand why some people say Truth and Love are THE core values, but in REALigion, a Reasonable Global Way, we think this summary has been misused and oversimplifies the matter.  Rather than the KISS principle of Keep It Simple Stupid, it is Keep It Stupidly Simple!  Our set of nine core values is more complex because the world is more complex than we would like to believe.

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We summarise our conclusions in this area as follows:

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