Think Science .

Ethics aren’t bullshit — however, “conventional ethics“ may be, for the same reason that “conventional wisdom” may be bullshit.

Societal norms are shortcuts for solving problems. In the society where they exist, they provide a good guideline for action, most of the time, for most people. But there will be circumstances where they are poor guides to action, and they may may be slow to adapt to new circumstances.

Personal ethics are the guidelines of someone who is independent-minded enough to not wish to rely on the socially-accepted shortcuts. The trick, when contradicting conventional ethics, is to ensure that no-one is hurt — somewhat tricky, because many people rely on others to follow conventional ethics, and put themselves at risk when someone (even without meaning harm) breaks the societal norms.

And there will always be officious people who will disapprove if you violate societal norms, even if no harm is done; not much can be done about them. But as long as society isn’t totally dominated by such people, there is room for independent ethical thought.

In any case, if you don’t behave ethically in some sense, you will eventually be shunned; so bull-shit or not, you have to find some way to negotiate an ethical position — one which is either in line with society, or according to your own best judgment.

The ruling paradigm is certainly not constant. For instance, while the feminist movement in the second half of the last century (in North America, at least) may not have put men and women on an equal footing, it certainly changed the balance of power to such an extent that many previously “acceptable” behaviors became clearly unethical. As a matter of fact, the balance of power shifted mostly because people activists convinced others to change their notion of conventional ethics.

The same holds true of changes in the balance of power associated with the abolition of slavery, the end of colonialism, and other significant political shifts.

While it may be true that conventional ethics support the ruling paradigm, it does not follow that neither conventional ethics nor the ruling paradigm change. However, both of these only change when pressures — either external or internal — cause them to change. And what are internal pressures? Changes in the mood of society as to what is an acceptable state of affairs.

Conventional ethics has the following in common with all other “conventions”; it changes when enough people want it to change, and only then.

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