I have always had a passion for philosophy and took it upon myself to take philosophy in college. It was eye opening, and what I learned in the first two weeks I wish everyone would be forced to learn. They taught you to be fair, in an argument but also in life. A lot of my morals have come from my own introspection and I am happy to have these words written down.
My Categorical Imperative
Kierkegaard’s Categorical Imperative (CI) is a good baseline but isn’t the best used in wide practice. It can get tangled by subjective and personal beliefs and for it to work requires a lot of defining action meanings and subjectivity.
The CI plainly insists that if you do an action, it would have to be okay for everyone to do that action. On the surface it sounds nice, but people can get it confused. The confusion lies in the difference between the action, the meaning and the killer of subjectivity. Maybe you’re a really touchy person; to you giving backrubs is a sign of appreciation. You wish everyone would give back rubs, that is the action. The meaning would be to show appreciation, and the subjectivity would be entering someone’s personal space.
For my CI I avoid this mess by applying it to non-personal issues. Instead of how I treat others, it’s more how I treat the world. If everyone littered the world would be a mess, so I don’t litter. If everyone cut out meat, there would be less pollution, so on and so forth. My CI applies to my actions on the world and I have other morals for dictating my actions on others.
Principle of Charity and Respect
The principle of charity asserts giving an argument the benefit of the doubt and considering the best and strongest interpretation. I love integrity and fairness and this is a core belief of mine. Taking it further and applying it to others has made my life a lot less stressful. The most pertinent example would be traffic. It is easy to get road rage when someone cuts you off or what not. The problem is people tend to take it very personally. I have found when you apply this charity the anger goes away. Maybe they’re in a hurry? Late for work? Going to the hospital? At the very least assume they didn’t mean to do it to you personally or overlooked you. They are human and when an individual cuts someone off, rarely is it out of pure spite, so why assume malice? The worst-case scenario is that they did do it to be a turd but because you assume the best, you are not angered by it! It seems like an overall win.
The other way it applies is how you talk to people, this is the respect aspect. I always try to go into an interaction assuming the other person has something valuable to say. If I disagree with them then this is a chance to see their point of view. They probably see life in a different way and by learning this insight, my view is broadened, I can better understand them and work together to reach an understanding and most importantly, It gives them the respect that they deserve as a person. Being treated and respected as they have meaning.
Improvement is a Life Long Struggle
Simply, you never stop learning and you never stop improving. As you move up in life and get better, your problems will not go away. The upside is that your problems get better. Complacency leads to stagnation, you don’t have to always be going to college to get an education, but continuing to learn, continuing to check your bias, continuing to look inwards and understand your own struggles and battles will help you reach inner happiness.
The Realization of a Worthy Ideal
I am an optimistic nihilist; to me the meaning of life is to be happy, to reach internal happiness you have to give your life meaning. This to me is success. Earl Nightingale has a powerful talk about this that opened my eyes. “Success is the progression of a worthy ideal”. This is his quote that I take to heart. Success is the man who runs the cornerstone, not because he wants to make money, but because it was something he truly wanted to do and set out to do it. How this applies to my morals is that, like life long struggle, I must be working to reach something. Everyone has to figure there stuff out and if it’s possible I will cheer on and help others reaching their success be it in what ever shape or form that it comes in.
Be the Change you Want to See
My last Moral and one I tout the most is “Be the change you want to see”. This stemmed from the explosion of social media. I got so sick of people complaining about personal problems or societal. I always thought if you care about something you will take action. It wasn’t until almost 4 years ago that I was trying to tell people we need to change if we want to slow down climate change. I took a look in the mirror and thought about what I actually do? Did I really want change, or did I want others to change so I don’t have to? After researching I found that the most impactful thing I could do is quit eating meat. So I did. It wasn’t easy and I felt so demoralized from my mom when she smirked and said “this was just a phase” but inside, deep down I personally feel good about my actions and that alone has kept my plight going. I’ve since started recycling my waste at a recycling center, I pick up trash that I find, and I try to be nice to others. Practice what you preach, if I want the world to be better, I have to be better.
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