Time to bring ethics out of the closet

There are 235 million Google results when you type in the word Ethics, and the definition at the top of the page is very apt. Ethics are moral principles that should guide our actions. But when it comes to giving ethics a place in our everyday lives, we draw a blank. What are these moral principles? Do they have authority? Who determines what's right? How important is it?

Triadic Philosophy says ethics should be Front And Center.

Triadic Philosophy identifies the principles. The root triad of this philosophy of the future is Reality, Ethics, Aesthetics.

A natural order

This triad suggests a natural order. Reality is what all of us exist within. Ethics is what guides us. Aesthetics is our expressions, our actions.

But of course, we do not achieve who we are if we are not conscious. When wise people say look within, they are saying we are conscious if we want to be. If we do not look within and discover that ethics is central to who we are, we are condemned to suffer the slings and arrows of a binary existence.

The binary order

The binary order avoids ethics entirely.

If it is pressed, it says things are either this way or that. It is the "my way or the highway" solution. It doesn't mind extremes because it never has more than one right answer.There is no third side to anything.

The problem is that life is more complex than that. We are human beings set down in a reality that presents us with ethical questions constantly.

But here we are, more than half-way through a short exposition, and I have not even suggested the principles by which we should live.

The triadic order

The triadic order gives ethics a central place. And it presents the basic principles by which all should live. Ethics is front and center, ahead of aesthetics -- action and expression.

Ethics is Cain indulging in a moment of thought before killing his brother Abel.

The action principles of ethics are tolerance, helpfulness, and democracy.

Each of these cardinal values would have given Cain pause. Each would have inhabited a conscious mind. Why?

More than a decision

The ethics proposed by Triadic Philosophy are more than something you automatically come upon when you look inside yourself. They are a conscious choice among a myriad of options. And they are more than that.

We live in a reality of chance and freedom and of rules and givens.

Termites are prodigious and follow rules with incredible precision. Our sense of freedom is a bit more developed, but there are rules that govern us. The ethics of Triadic Philosophy are consistent Reality. They are the rules of progress.