This is a brief summary of section 4-5’s important contributions to understanding ethics. 4-5 is also fundamental to all ethical dilemmas because both 4-5 and ethics relate to principles, conscience, self-control, habituation/ rebellion, and personal growth. The full section 4-5 can be found in its appropriate place in Five Categories Theory Part 1.
4-5 -- Power -- Intro to Important ethical concepts
The core problem of 4-5 is that humans do not have full conscious control over their actions. Conscious principles often conflict with non-conscious impulses. Principles seek accomplishment and avoid guilt; impulses seek pleasure and avoid pain. Principles determine what one believes one should do; impulses determine what one wants to do.
Evolution is a power game -- emotions exist first and foremost to motivate people in evolutionarily empowering ways. All motivation emerges from sex and death -- the evolutionary need to reproduce and survive.
Feeling powerful feels really, really good. Good enough for some people to value feelings of empowerment (pleasure) above all else. The drive for empowerment is expressed emotionally as the desire for personal satisfaction.
But empowerment does not provide lasting happiness. The more one feeds the desire for more, the less one feels one already has enough. Satisfaction is a carrot on a stick, always just out of reach no matter how hard one tries to grab it. No amount of power is ever really truly satisfying, because there is no such thing as total satisfaction.
Satisfaction encourages one to reproduce the current circumstances. As such, satisfaction is not the destination it seems to be, but instead just a different sort of desire -- backwards-facing desire. Instead of ending desire, satisfaction reinforces desire.
And it makes sense that total satisfaction does not exist. Emotions exist to motivate action, and true satisfaction would be the absence of desire. Because an absence of desire does not motivate action, it stands to reason that total satisfaction is unachievable.
So nobody is completely free from desire. This causes a general, unceasing restlessness. People need something to do; nobody is happy with nothing to do or think about. Restlessness can be a tremendous emotional burden; or, it can be embraced and enjoyed as motivation:
Restlessness is fuel. It naturally spends itself feeding the flame of impulsiveness. But before it burns one can move it to instead feed self-control. Whenever one feels restless, before being hypnotized by impulses, one should use the moment of conscious awareness as an opportunity to consider one’s goals and strengthen one’s conscious resolve.
If one seeks satisfaction, restlessness is a tormentor, always feeding desire and reminding one of problems. Instead, one should seek meaning (defined momentarily). If one seeks meaning, restlessness is an ally which helps one accomplish meaningful tasks.
This metaphor also applies to one’s conscience. If one seeks satisfaction, one’s conscience is a tormentor which generates remorse. If one seeks meaning, one’s conscience is a moral compass which generates feelings of accomplishment.
Put simply: Satisfaction-seekers are interested in power for the sake of feeling powerful; meaning-seekers are interested in power so they can use it to accomplish things. Pleasure-seekers are upset by problems and solve them to make them go away; meaning-seekers find meaning in solving problems.
Meaning is always found in accomplishment; however, ‘accomplishment’ is defined by each individual’s principles. People commonly find meaning in solving problems and helping others; “What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world, remains and is immortal” -- Mason Albert Pike. People also find meaning in:
Learning interesting things
Religion / conviction & spirituality
Story, socializing with friends & family, romance… connecting with others
Limit-testing, competition, creativity, humor… having fun
Art, music, cuisine, nature, exercise and movement/dance… sensory and emotional stimulation
So long as one behaves morally, one should pursue meaning wherever one finds it.
Seeking meaning is more satisfying than seeking pleasure. When one seeks meaning, one’s life is imbued with purpose; one’s actions are imbued with selfless caring; and one’s emotions are imbued with resolve and accomplishment. When one seeks pleasure, one’s life is tainted by frustration; one’s actions are tainted by selfish greed; and one’s emotions are tainted by remorse and guilt.
One can choose to view solving life’s endless problems as either a mission or a burden. This is illustrated by the quest for the holy grail, which symbolizes the quest for enlightenment. The holy grail represents the attainment of personal perfection. But the true holy grail is the quest itself. By treating life as a mission -- by taking life seriously -- one has the holy grail; one is enlightened. Life feels purposeful, and one accomplishes more. Attaining perfect ethics is impossible, but fighting for one’s principles gives life meaning.
(Topics further discussed in 4-5: Overcoming guilt, attaining willpower, and overcoming bad habits, as well as more on the topics introduced here.)