Sullivan’s Moral Theory

All persons have one fundamental, irrefutable, initial right, the right to one’s self; and no other man, nor institution, can rightfully take that from them. To elaborate, the right to one’s self includes the following: the right to life; the right to mind; the right to body; the right to autonomy. In the fourth right, it must be noted that no autonomy, as already expressed, may rightfully breach another’s rights of self.

The application and defense of these rights are designed to produce goodness, but first we must define “good.” There are two types of good, natural good and conditioned good. The natural good is instinctual; it’s the individual’s independent rationalization of making good decisions. The conditioned good is made up of learned morals known to be good; the conditioned good is comprised, but not limited to religious, parental, and cultural influence. These goods are best utilized together, rather than separately, natural good reasons standards for a conditional good, which is subject to reason and modification through natural good.

Right to Life

The Right to Life: Survival is a natural instinct, observable even in nonhuman animals; this implies that reason is not necessarily required to establish one’s will to live. Nonhuman animals observe an ethical nature by protecting their life and the life of their kin. As rational creatures, we can take this instinct of survival further and rationalize that because most persons have the desire the live, it is beneficial to all, including the individual whom desires life, not to take another’s life from them; doing so subjects them to modes of recourse equal to their action, much like Newton’s Law of Cause and Effect. This rationalization is a natural good, as it benefits not only the individual egotistically, but society altruistically as well. As a natural, and by definition, rational good, its concept can and has (historically) been applied to become a conditional good, being cited in religious and cultural moral systems.

Right to Mind

The Right to Mind: It is undeniable that our thoughts and ideas are of our own; they cannot be taken away because they are of an intangible nature. While the argument may arise that another person can give an idea to another and create influence, that doesn’t take away the receiver’s ability to cognitively produce that idea on their own; and, unlike a tangible object, when that idea is given to another person, it is merely duplicated since the original owner of that idea did not lose it in the transfer. The transfer and maintaining of ideas allows one to confine an idea, to which they cherish, to themselves and observe and egoistic course of action; the expression and transfer of these ideas allows the opportunity of expanding and understanding alternative perspectives, ultimately aimed for the good of others in an altruistic sense.