A Universal Morality that Works??

A review of "Universally Preferable Behavior: A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics", by Stefan Molyneux

(Sold here: http://www.lulu.com/content/1270751)
. . .

Moral philosophers consider the question "Why Be Good?" to be one of the central problems of ethics. Stefan Molyneux himself has expressed this tangentially as one motivation for writing his book.

But, it has occurred to me recently, that this is the wrong question. Molyneux's latest work, "Universally Preferable Behavior - A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics", does not attempt to answer this question. It simply acknowledges that we all, as a matter of observable fact, want to "be good". That is UPB's basic axiom -- and I think it may be this fundamental difference between UPB and other moral arguments that makes Universally Preferable Behavior superior to the rest of them.

Some will contest that all mister Molyneux has done is to simply refuse to answer the question. But, I would argue that no one really wants or needs an answer to that question. Even in the most backwater, barbaric, nomadic cultures you can think of, the people in those cultures believed that what they were doing was *good. They desired to be good. Even if that meant lopping 500 heads to appease a sun god, or burning infidels at the stake, or torturing pagans on the rack. But the truth is, as this book shows, that they were all corrupted into believing that what they were doing was the good. But they needed little if no explanation at all, for why they wanted to do what was good. They just did it.

So, the REAL problem is not "why should I be good?", but rather, "Why should I believe your definition of the good?" - And THAT is the problem UPB solves.

It is the only problem that really needed to be solved, at a fundamental level. Right action is what we've always desired, as a species. But knowledge of right action has been so obscured for centuries that acting coherently on our desire to do good has been next to impossible. UPB does not - and cannot - give you the desire to act on the good, but it can - and does - give you a means to discover what it is.

THAT is why this stuff is so scary to people. THAT is why UPB is such a "dangerous" idea: It tells us all that we've lived a lie for eons, in order to dull the unsatisfied pang of that desire to do good - and that, all this time we believed we were doing good, we were in fact, doing the opposite.

THAT is why violence escalates, and evil accumulates. The unsatisfied desire keeps building and building, and our appetite keeps expanding, in an attempt to satisfy the desire. But, because we think the opposite of good is actual good, we only exacerbate the pangs; enhance the desire; excellerate the craving to satisfy that desire.

THAT is why violence-centered societies must ALWAYS fail - and precisely why governments must ALWAYS collapse, in the end.

. . .
If you like, you can discuss the book further here: http://www.freedomainradio.com/board/forums/

There are also a number of podcasts he's done on issues addressed in the book: http://www.freedomainradio.com/podcasts/

Let me know what you think!