On Living A Good Life (or Stand Back! I'm Going to Try Science!)

This blog is devoted to philosophy and science. New discoveries and applications in science often lead to interesting new ethical questions and they also often lead to an interesting philosophical discussion of what the results mean. But the area that most interests me (and the reason this blog is titled the Ethics of Everything) is in the application of scientific advances and discussions to living a good life.

My view on personal ethics is a form of utilitarianism. While there are many types, utilitarians basically argue that something is good if it has good results. I describe my personal view as natural rights utilitarianism (there is probably another person who has posited this previously with a better name. There generally is). This form of utilitarianism argues that when calculating utility (the goodness of results) we must also include things like life, liberty, and property along with happiness. As an example of where this makes a difference, if I were kidnapped and drugged to be always happy, in most forms of utilitarianism, that would be a positive outcome, even if I would prefer (prior to drugging) to be less happy and retain my freedom. Once drugged, I might not care, but my liberty to chose would be completely overlooked. In my (and I imagine most of our common-sense) ethical frameworks, that would be a bad thing.

The problem with utilitarianism is that it is often hard to figure out what action to take for the greatest utility. This is true of classical "happiness" utilitarianism, and perhaps even more true when considering the other factors when determining utility. It's hard to know what effect each action we take will have on total utility, and it's easy to fall prey to our own cognitive errors and make the wrong decision, even if, when thinking rationally, we are capable of judging what would be the best, most moral choice.

Insight from social sciences, such as psychology, economics, and their child behavioral economics, helps us figure out how to focus our actions and thoughts in order to do more good in the world, and to lead a better life. They help us understand the results of what we do, and help us learn how to think about our choices to avoid pitfalls that lead us towards worse actions.

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