Comment by Freethinking- on 10/02/2025 at 18:13 UTC

2 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)

View submission: /r/philosophy Open Discussion Thread | February 10, 2025

Proposition: Ethics and politics are on the same spectrum.

Because evolution has selected for both self-interested behavior and Golden Rule reciprocity, all ethical orientations can be classified into one or more of three general categories: egoism, reciprocity, and intermediately, reciprocal egoism. Likewise, all political orientations can also be classified into one or more of three equivalent categories: group egoism or tribalism (the right), Golden Rule reciprocity or equality (the left), and intermediately again, reciprocal egoism or liberalism. The political spectrum, in other words, may be reconceived in a simple and pragmatic way as a politicized ethical spectrum, ranging from individual or group self-interest to an ideal based on what all would find acceptable when identifying with each other's viewpoint.

Replies

Comment by Hot_Experience_8410 at 12/02/2025 at 08:30 UTC

1 upvotes, 1 direct replies

The golden rule is one of the worst ideas I have ever bore witness to.

Comment by Electrical_Shoe_4747 at 10/02/2025 at 22:14 UTC

2 upvotes, 1 direct replies

I think that something like this view is fairly common, no? That ethics and political philosophy at eboth concerned with value, and for a lot of thinkers their political philosophy is intimately related to their ethics.