A PRACTICAL QUESTION ABOUT GOODNESS
What makes a good trait actually good?
People praise courage, honesty, loyalty, justice, and hundreds of other traits. Choose one—not because it is your favorite, but because the Atlas will test whether its goodness survives when Truth or Love is removed.
1Choose a claimed goodSomething people call a virtue, value, duty, ideal, or moral practice.2Stress-test the claimStrip away reputation and ask what remains without Truth or Love.3Find the essential reasonThat underlying reason is what this Atlas calls its “moral form.”
⌘ K
TTruthReality · honesty · coherence
+LLoveFlourishing · dignity · care
→moral form
SEARCHING FOR DAVID01
Choose a family
12 moral families · 350 seeded concepts
A falsifiable method
Reduce the concept. Remove Truth. Remove Love. If moral goodness survives both tests unchanged, the theory has found a serious challenge.