My Morality

The biological origin of ethics is generally agreed-upon by the scientific community. Ethics are clearly not a human invention, as pretty much any species has a code of conduct that acts as a biological leash upon intraspecies conduct. The reason is clear: species that coöperate and refrain from senseless violence survive better than those that don't. Thus, morality came about through evolution. Young children and even nonhuman organisms have an innate sense of fairness. This is why our responses are different in a visceral level when a man is killed by a bear or an earthquake than if he's killed by a man or a woman.

So, morality prevents aggression (defined as the initiation of force or fraud). These are called "negative rights" or rights of non-interference. Humans also tend to organize into societies for the purpose of the protection. This is where "positive rights", or rights of obligation come from. Societies or governments are instituted to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

Basically, organisms have an obligation to refrain from intraspecies aggression, and tend to form societies to both protect against aggression and ensure the well-being of the individual, the society, and the species. How and on which level this takes place is largely irrelevant as long as at least the basic needs of the population are met and negative rights are sufficiently protected.

Positive rights belong to members of a society. If you don't want these obligation, you are free to leave society. But seeing as negative rights are useless if not enforced, most people prefer to live in a society where members protect each other.

Let me now put my system of ethics in summary.

(1) Organisms have a moral obligation to refrain from intraspecies aggression.
(2a) Societies have an obligation to enforce point (1).
(2b) Societies have an obligation to promote the general well-being of the population.