Morality — First Principles Exploration

Naturalistic moral framework built from bedrock concepts upward. Anchor page for Trunk 1.

Links: The Four Trunks, Philosophy, Economics — Value and Profit, Scope Confusion

Trunk: Trunk 1 — Normative Ontology. Working name: constitutive realism.

The framework in three lines

Morality requires agents — physical reality, consciousness, agency (the is-ought bridge is performative, not logical).
Given agents, the norms are constitutive — not arbitrary, entailed by the structure of agent-interaction. See Constitutive/Elective Distinction.
Norms are scope-bounded, not universal — core norms are structurally required; marginal norms are elective. See Scope Confusion.

Three overlapping circles

Morality — right and wrong at individual conscience
Ethics — group norms
Law — codified ethics with enforcement

These overlap, they don’t nest. Confusing the circles produces most political disagreement — see scope-confusion.

Two layers of good and bad

Action (praxeology) and morality aren’t identical. Praxeological success = “did you achieve your purpose.” Moral evaluation = “does your purpose, when pursued, sustain or degrade the conditions under which agents can function.” Successful theft is praxeologically good and constitutively bad. Full treatment: Constitutive/Elective Distinction.

Sub-pages

Is-Ought and Performative Grounding — dissolves Hume’s guillotine; escapes Agrippa’s trilemma
Performative Grounding — Philosophical Lineage — Aristotle through Hoppe; 2,400-year tradition
The Constitutive/Elective Distinction — replaces objective/subjective; morality mind-dependent AND constitutive; the vacuity test
Scope Confusion — most political disagreements are scope errors; enforceability gradient
Deontology vs. Consequentialism — false dichotomy; deontology as cached consequentialism
Action/Inaction Asymmetry — grounds negative/positive rights
Debate FAQ — living document of objections and responses
The Constitutive Middle — Two Dialectics — operational playbook: walking a global anti-realist (logic is constitutive, demonstrable in the act) and a theistic realist (read the law off the nature; God = Author, not truth-maker; Grotius) to constitutive realism. Quick-recall card up top.
Open Problems — unresolved tensions and dissolved ones

Applied: Legal Theory

Legal norms are constitutive of cooperative rule-systems — applied Trunk 1. See Legal Theory.

Trunk 2 — Verification Epistemology — how convergence tests constitutive claims
Stance-Independence Retreat — counter-page naming evasion moves