Consider three modern philosophers: Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill
                                                                                and Immanuel Kant.

        Bentham & Mill emphasize social utility
                and rules to insure that the good for the whole is protected.

        Kant emphasizes Golden Rule Fairness to Persons
                grounded in a notion of persons as equal, rational and free.
                He also emphasizes duties and rights to protect dignity of persons.

The Traffic Light Model brings these criteria together nicely:

RED --- color of blood/color of heart -- Notice harm/benefit TO THE WHOLE.

The whole may be of different sizes: a friendship or a family over time or an organization or a nation or the planet itself. Learning to think globally encourages us to see all lifeforms as valuable members of the whole. Here what makes an act wrong is the harmfulness of its consequences. Bentham and Mill are consequentialists -- consequences to society. Sound and sensible rules protect the good of the unit. In fact, today we can speak about Rule-utilitarians; those who assess the consequences (good and bad) of rules (not individual acts).

ACTS (& POLICIES) HAVE CONSEQUENCES.

GOLD -- color of Golden Rule (caution/ golden care for persons --
                                            Notice FAIRNESS TO EACH MEMBER OF THE WHOLE.

Think of the underlying vision of persons -- not as things-to-be-used, but as having worth in themselves and a mind and a will. Here what makes an act wrong is its violation of the nature of persons. Basic human rights are seen as protecting the dignity of persons. PERSONS ARE NOT THINGS; PERSONS HAVE RIGHTS.

    Institutionally, rules and rights are put in place to guard both.
**********************************************************************************************************************
The Traffic Light Model (Continued): Adding Responsibility

Two separable questions:

    1) Is the ACTION wrong = on balance, destructive (Red/Gold)?
    2) How responsible is the AGENT -- the doer of the deed or the maker(s) of the policy?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A        RED Is the action helpful, not harmful, to the WHOLE?
C
T
I
O       GOLD Is the action fair and dignity-preserving to members of the Whole?
N
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A
G
E        GREEN Did the agent act Knowingly (with understanding) & Willingly (with free consent)?
N
T

                The Green of Agent’s Responsibility has a 2-fold criteria:

                    Knowledge     +         Freedom.                     (R = K+W OR R= KW)
                    100% --- 0%                 100% --- 0%

Recall that intellect and will -- informed consent -- are diminished in certain ways:

Lack of knowledge can result from deception, ignorance, misinterpretation, mistake, etc.
Lack of freedom to give full consent can result from coercion, threats, fear, impairment, etc.
**********************************************************************************************************************

The Big Four institutions are (1) political, (2) economic, (3) educational (including media) and (4) religious. As examples, think of a branch of government, a corporation, a college, an organized religious body. Of course, there are many other institutions -- think of the numerous voluntary organizations. Lastly, the family itself is a mini-institution, yet it is perhaps best thought of in a separate category.

The General Nature of Institutions -- Three Paths to Understanding:

A. Institutions may be thought of as Solutions to a Certain Type of Task.

Institutions can be viewed as a response to human needs that (I) recur and (ii) affect all or many people and (iii) require or benefit from cooperative actions. Since the needs are recurring needs -- such as ordering life and settling disputes, providing goods and services, educating the young, etc. -- the institution must be relatively stable over time. Since these needs affect all or many, there is a benefit to meeting them by division and coordination of labor. Hence, we understand institutions as organized cooperative structures, existing over time, to satisfy recurring needs.

The sociologists, Berber and Luckmann, remind us that institutions are formed by people; time passes; and people are formed by institutions. The roles, rules and routines give a permanence to institutions. In large part, the key institutions are present before we are born and will go on after we die.

The institutions are organized to fulfill tasks -- government regulates conduct and settles disputes; economic institutions provide goods and services; educational institutions teach the young; religious institutions provide ways to worship in common, etc. Remembering that institutions fulfill tasks allows us to hold two factors in mind: Some form of basic institution is necessary (because the problem will remain), while, at the same time, any particular form of institution is somewhat arbitrary (being only one possible solution to the problem).

Because the institutional domain is the domain of power (through policies and procedures), it is also the preeminent domain for justice to enter in. "Justice," in one striking formulation, "is sorting out what belongs to whom and giving it back."

        Racism                                   Sexism                                      Ageism
            is a                                         is a                                            is a
    SYSTEM                                  SYSTEM                                  SYSTEM
          of                                               of                                                of
       racial                                         sexual                                       age-related
inequity & discrimination     inequity & discrimination         inequity & discrimination
which has its roots in              which has its roots in                which has its roots in
a generalized feeling of        a generalized feeling of             a generalized feeling of
   white superiority                      male superiority                     youth superiority
      and which is                            and which is                                 and which is
sustained & reinforced           sustained & reinforced           sustained & reinforced
   by the institutions of             by the institutions of                by the institutions of
            the culture.                                   the culture.                     the culture.

Speciesism is a SYSTEM of species-related inequity & discrimination which has its roots in a generalized feeling of human superiority & which is sustained & reinforced by the institutions of the culture.
                                                                               copywrite John G. Sullivan 1999
 

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