Fig. 1. Graphic dichotomy: the trick is that only the black subclass is drawn here, and the white one, without being drawn at all, manifests itself.
Without being separate entities, good and evil cannot be goals in themselves that we could strive for. Аnd for this reason, the good has wrongly «…been declared to be that at which all things aim.» Good and evil are parameters, level pointers, or relationships that allow us to come to the desired goal or desired entity. Thus, it is seen that both the substratum and the result of the action of a moral choice is that to which the attitude is expressed using the concepts of good and evil. It remains for us now to find out what kind of fundamental essence can manifest itself in almost any phenomenon around us.
Let’s look at this using the example of any measuring instrument that we use: speedometer, altimeter, thermometer, or fuel quantity indicator. These measuring instruments are excellent models of the «ethical method», their function can reveal the mechanics of its work. So, we may say that measuring instruments is designed primarily to show whether a process controlled by us either exists or is dying. On the instruments, we see on one hand the permissible range of the existence is the process that we launched, its existence right now. And on the other hand, the unacceptable parameters of the existence is the process when it is heading for death. And the danger of this death is important for us, because it is important to us that the existence of the process continues to exist.
If you bake a pie, then when you control the baking by the thermometer, the process is already underway, the pie is already baking and the process already exists. Now, consider the baking process chemically. As always, baking is a Maillard reaction: a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor. Ideally, it exists in the range from 110 degrees Celsius to 140 degrees. A complete taste is formed, which represents numerous rearrangements of molecules, and as such, an ideal brown crust appears along with a characteristic pleasant aroma. If the temperature is less than 110 degrees, the Maillard reaction will be insufficient, and there will be no baking as we know it – a brown crust, a full taste, and the smell of the pie. It will just be a boiled, half-baked dough, raw and tasteless pie filling. On the contrary, above 140 degrees there will be caramelization of sugars, and above 200 degrees and the combustion of carbohydrates – so baking will also die.
In this example, we see that we have indicators of good for baking: from 110 to 140 degrees. We also have indicators of evil: less than 110 or over 140 degrees. And it seems that we naturally strive for the good, while avoiding the evil. Exactly as Aristotle told us. But is this really the case? Can we say that we received a goodness as entity at the end of the process, if it satisfied us? No, we got good pastries and nothing else. Even a good, delicious pie is not «…to be that at which all things aim», it is not a goodness as entity. If we burn the pie, we do not get the evil as entity either. The only thing that happened was that the pastries that we needed is died, but nothing else.
So, by controlling the baking with the parameters of good and evil, we did not strive for good as such. Just like we didn’t really embody any evil if we chose not to control the baking properly and burn the pie. In essence, we used the ethical method on the measuring instrument to prevent the death of the process that was important to us. Therefore, ethics is exactly the method of precisely overcoming specifically the death that threatens the existence of the process we need. This technique can be applied to any life situation.
The entity we are looking for, which we track by ethical parameters on the measuring instruments, is precisely the threat of death of the process, but not the presence of existence. It is important to grasp this difference. We already have the existence of the process, which is commonly known as existing right now. But we will respond to the signal of the parameters only in response to possible process problems, which the measuring instrument signals by showing unacceptable parameters on the scale.
Thus, when we see a favorable range of parameters, this can be thought of as is a goodness for the process, rather than a good as entity. In other words, a parameter of the essence of the process. And when we see an unfavorable range of parameters, an evil for the process appears, but not as an evil as entity. It is an undesirable parameter for the essence of the process.
Let us consider one more example. A plane going 200 km/h will be too slow and dangerous – risking the plane to fall into a tailspin every second and lose its footing, and then die. However, that same speed for a car (200 km/h) will be dangerously too high. There will be increased threat of collision, human death, and destruction from an accident. So, there is no evil, nor good, inherently in the 200 km/h speed itself. It is obvious that our attitude to this speed will change depending on the situation, as demonstrated just above.
By itself, the figure on the altimeter indicates the position of the aircraft above the ground. And the figure becomes evil only when it indicates a position that means the possibility of the death of the aircraft, and good if the flight can continue safely. The pilot applies an attitude to the figure: knowing which of are good and which are bad makes an effort towards the indicators of good on the instruments and avoids approaching the indicators of evil. So, the pilot does not achieve good by itself, and avoids not evil as a separate entity. It can also be mentioned that the same numbers on the altimeter can mean evil for the aircraft in one situation, and good in another. There is no contradiction in this and the situation is clearly understood by us.
From the reasoning about the indicators, it also follows that for any indicator, the index of evil is important. Sometimes, the device generates an alert light for the danger indicator, which simply signals the loss of the goodness in the process. And, as in Figure 1, even if there is no good on such an indicator, it is still always present there by not burning alarm mode. So, in order to know the good, we always need an indicator of evil. And the most important thing is that we are convinced of the inseparability of our parametric categories. It is impossible to be sure of getting the result of the process if guided only by the indicators of the range of good. Therefore, on any device, the index of evil is equally important to us. Parametric good and evil are inseparable – that’s why they are a dichotomy.
Therefore, good and evil cannot, and should not, be separated if we want to benefit from them. We always need to know the range of both parameters in order to find the right path. If our instruments only show the range of good, then how will we avoid evil without knowing about where is it?
Fig. 2. The ethical method means that the parameters of GOOD for the existing system or process are from 60 to 160, and parameters more than 210 mean EVIL, that is, they lead to the death of the system or the process.
At this point of reasoning, it may seem to us that the ethical method boils down to the survival of an existing one, but this is not correct. The concepts of overcoming death and survival are not identical. Survival addresses first to the energy of life, which is already exist and is looking for a way to continue, not paying attention to problems, and not even knowing about them. Survival is the path of natural selection. The tool of selection on the path of survival is death. The higher the energy of living systems and the number of attempts, the sooner the selection system gets the right option. No matter what the problem is, it is important to find and consolidate such behavior to the point of a form of existence that does not face a problem in the first place. Indeed, although there are infinitely many problems, animals do this without any research. Their instinct serves as the right way past problems, and they pay with their lives for wrong answers. As a result of the evolution of selection, all the wrong answers die, and only the right ones survive. Survivors, as it is seen, are the right answers in its purest form.
Overcoming death for a human, on the contrary, implies understanding the source of danger,