Summary

The topic discussed on this site is called Moral Covariance, or Special Moral Covariance, and is structured from the same principles as the Special theory of Relativity.

The Special Theory of Relativity is a theory that is both subjective and objective.  One subjective aspect of special relativity is that the laws of physics, and space-time itself, may be viewed differently from different reference frames.  However, special relativity also makes use of some powerful universal statements such as the "speed of light must be the same in every reference frame".  Special Relativity makes very absolute claims, such as proving that the Newtonian view of mechanics is "incorrect".

Moral Covariance is an attempt to faithfully apply the principles of Special Relativity to ethical spaces.  Moral Covariance is what Moral Relativism should have been.  Moral Covariance provides subjective freedom without devolving into a mere excuse for irresponsible moral decisions.

Moral Covariance is both subjective and absolute.

The critical components of Moral Covariance are laid out below.

• Moral Observers are people capable of observing moral constructs and positing ethical models.  A Moral Observer can only directly observe morality from their own reference frame.
• Moral Reference Frame is the set of tools used by Moral Observers to measure morality.  This set of tools includes:
• Language.  Even when speaking the same language, we don't always apply the same meaning to particular words.
• Bias.  This is our primary tool for building expectations for the outcomes of moral inquiries.
• Lack of Understanding.  We all have different holes in our knowledge, and the holes of one Moral Observer may not line up exactly with the holes of another.
• Rationality.  This represents a state of equivalency between different reference frames.  This state of equivalency can sometimes be characterized by a willingness to see things from another persons point of view, or to find common ground.
• Special Moral Covariance is restricted to only include rational reference frames.  General Moral Covariance will deal with reference frames that are irrational, and obviously represents a trickier problem.
• Subjective Freedom is the fact that there is no preferred reference frame (among the set of rational reference frames.)  This does not mean that all moral conclusions are equivalent and "correct", rather, all Moral Observers have equal capacity to observe morality with their own set of subjective tools.
• Moral Invariants are moral concepts that are viewed the same in all reference frames.  Two likely Moral Invariants are
• Love
• Self Preservation
• Morally Significant concepts are concepts that are framed with respect to Moral Invariants.
• Moral Transformations are processes by which we may try to build relationships between different Moral Reference Frames.  Moral Transformations must:
• Exist
• Preserve the Moral Invariants

The Principle of Moral Covariance is axiomatically translated directly from the Principle of Relativity upon which all relativistic mechanics is founded.  It is stated as:

All moral laws must be expressed in terms of concepts which when observed from two different reference frames can be unambiguously correlated.

Restated, this means that two Moral Observers who observe morality from two different Moral Reference Frames can build ethical models that are based on Morally Significant Concepts, and if they are successful, they can expect that their ethical models will translate well from one observer to the other.