The first thought in setting up an ethical law of the form ‘thou shalt...’ is: And what if I do not do it? But it is clear that ethics has nothing to do with punishment and reward in the ordinary sense.
Abstract
On the basis of a ten-place comparative value relation, artificially reduced to a binary relation, some human value structures are studied and a concept of value kinematics is proposed. A miniature value logic is outlined, making it possible with precision to handle several explicated value notions and to analyze interrelations between them. Finally, the question is discussed whether health can be said to be an absolute and an intrinsic value.
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Dedicated to my wife Maria and my son David for whom my work on this paper in July and August 1980 has been the greatest absolute disvalue.
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Sadegh-Zadeh, K. Normative systems and medical metaethics Part I: Value kinematics, health, and disease. Metamedicine 2, 75–119 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00886348
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00886348