The current interest in family values has undergone a significant revival as of late, a trend dramatized by the perceived decline in morals affecting American culture. The traditional descriptions of the family values, however, are typically treated as isolated entities, lacking any meaningful degree of moral connectedness across the board. Fortunately, the dream of a unified ethical and moral system has finally been realized with the first radical revolution in ethical theory in over two thousand years, as proposed in: The Ultimate Guide to Family Values: A Grand Unified Theory of Ethics and Morality. As its title implies, this new moral system is the first grand unified theory of its type; taking as its foundation the ethical values pioneered in classical Greek philosophy, augmented by the writings of the great Church theologians over the past two thousand years. The distinctive groupings of ethical values defined within this system all appear to be linked on an intuitive level, suggesting a clear sense of underlying cohesiveness.
The key innovation behind this revolution arises as a direct result of the emerging field of Communications Theory, borrowing the crucial concept of the metaperspective (a higher-order perspective upon the viewpoint held by another). According to this conceptual paradigm, the abstract groupings of virtues and values are collectively seen as subsets within this hierarchy of metaperspectives, each more abstract grouping building upon those which it supersedes.
Take, for example, the cardinal virtues (prudence-justice-temperance-fortitude), the theological virtues (faith-hope-charity-decency), and the classical Greek values (beauty-truth-goodness-wisdom). Each of these distinctive ethical groupings is further split into a complex of four subordinate terms, allowing for a precise, point-for-point stacking within the hierarchy of metaperspectives. When additional groupings of ethical terms are further added into the mix, the complete ten level hierarchy of metaperspectives emerges in full detail, partially reproduced in the table immediately below:
GLORY-----------PRUDENCE
PROVIDENCE---------FAITH
GRACE-------------BEAUTY
TRANQUILITY------ECSTASY
HONOR---------JUSTICE
LIBERTY----------HOPE
FREE WILL-------TRUTH
EQUALITY--------BLISS
DIGNITY-------TEMPERANCE
CIVILITY---------CHARITY
MAGNANIMITY-----GOODNESS
LOVE-----------------JOY
INTEGRITY----FORTITUDE
AUSTERITY------DECENCY
EQUANIMITY------WISDOM
PEACE----------HARMONY
This cohesive hierarchy of virtues, values, and ideals proves exceedingly comprehensive in scope, accounting for virtually every major ethical term celebrated within the Western ethical tradition. Indeed, it is easy to gain a sense of the trend towards increasing abstraction when scanning each of the individually depicted columns from top to bottom. Such superficial resemblance, however, can scarcely claim to be the total picture; for it further proves possible to base this hierarchy of family values entirely within a behavioral foundation; namely, the terminology of operant conditioning proposed by the great American psychologist, B. F. Skinner. Through this purely behavioral style of motivational analysis, the higher virtues and values can alternately be viewed as more advanced metaperspectives on the more basic complement of instinctual states (i.e., reward, punishment, appetite, aversion). Through the aid of this scientifically based, motivational foundation, the complete ten level hierarchy of family values finally achieves the degree of validity befitting such a true "technology of behavior." Indeed, this new system proves particularly well suited for introducing moral values to a new generation of youth (who increasingly find themselves at odds with the more traditional value systems).
Even more significant applications remain in store; most notably, the feasibility of programming the logical consequences of this motivational hierarchy directly into a computer, resulting in the first master program for artificial intelligence (simulated in the ethical realm). Indeed, an entire final chapter is devoted to outlining the logistics involved in implementing at least a skeleton framework of such a (patent pending) artificially intelligent machine.
John E. LaMuth is a 45 year-old counselor and author, native to the Southern California area. His credentials include a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biological Sciences from University of California, Irvine: followed by a Master of Science Degree in Counseling from California State University, Fullerton; with an emphasis in Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling. Postgraduate career choices include social work with abused children, and as an educator in the field of psychology. John's most current work in progress fulfills a long-standing dream of launching his own private practice in Divorce and Family Mediation Counseling in the San Bernardino County area.
