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DRAFTING IN PROGRESS

Structured Ethics (SE) is a field of study and activity devoted to mutual relations between the fields of Ethics and Mathematics.

Meaning

In the term Structured Ethics the word ‘Structured’ means what it means in the term ‘Structured Data’ which simply put is ‘data that fits in a table or spreadsheet’, and the word ‘Ethics’ means the field of study and activity widely known as Ethics - which is the field where mores are discussed.

Purpose

The purpose of SE is to explore and develop mutual relations between Ethics and Mathematics, for example interpretations and representations of any of the parts of the field of Ethics, such as concepts, elements, rules, or processes attachments and connectivity.

This is not new ground, but 2020 is a time for new progress. A tenet of SE is that connectivity with Mathematics will help to clarify deliberations within, and applications of, transparent moral judgment.

Guiding principles

One guiding principle for Structured Ethics arises from this statement: “a spoken language is not meant to mean the same to everyone” and also from the fact that Mathematics is a universal written language that is meant to mean the same to everyone.

Another guiding principle is that simplicity and clarity are great enablers of progress. To get ahead, SE travels light.

Let’s solve ethics.

Coming up: some SE definitions of key words.

In SE, definitions favour clarity over other factors.

It is a given that the need for clarity will impose limits on inclusivity, but in trying to achieve Reasoned Ethics Modelling, discrete concrete components help a lot. For that reason an early objective of SE is a crisp working lexicon.

Ethics here means the field of study where mores are discussed. About 1700 words in English end in the letters ‘ics’. Many of them mean a ‘field of study’ or a ‘type of activity’. This notion of a collective noun is important; many such ‘ics’ words collect together things not named in accord with the collective noun itself. Within ethics are mores, from which comes the word morals, and thence moral values. The sum of those parts in an individual is ethos. Ethos is the best of all the words.

Ethos means ‘stance‘ in everyday modern Greek. In SE an ethos belongs to a person, or to some people; the idea that an institution has an ethos is not accepted, because it is the accountable people of that institution who have it, not the stone, steel, or glass. An ethos is always only the product of human deliberations about morals, principles, and suchlike; it guides conduct and behaviour, and in extremis ethos defines conduct. The ethos of an organisation must be collectively reflected in those accountable for what the organisation does, and perhaps each person individually accountable. The entity does not launder accountability.