Knowledge brings change

Central concept 1: Knowledge is a prerequisite for ethics. Knowledge is thus able to change the bases of decisions laid by ethics.

Central concept 2: Knowledge changes what ethical decisions are

To give a brutal example: Imagine a respected doctor of the past, who dissects corpses, delivers babies, etc. But then in 1848 a study by Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis is published. The accepted practice among doctors of not wasting precious time by washing their hands is suddenly regarded as deliberate homicide of patients.

After publication of Dr. Semmelweis's study, every doctor had to ask themselves:

Is the effort of washing my hands so big that I will accept the risk that Dr. Semmelweis is right, or is it really not such a big thing to wash my hands and I'd rather be on safe side?
How can Dr. Semmelweis's study be definitively proved or disproved?

In the ethics diagram, a doctor would have had to fill in four variants

I wash my hands - Semmelweis is right
I wash my hands - Semmelweis is wrong
I don't wash my hands - Semmelweis is right
I don't wash my hands - Semmelweis is wrong

If the corresponding probabilites are applied to these variants, a doctor with the training of the time would have given Semmelweis a maximum 10% probability that his study is correct. But even in the case of a 1% probability, in view of the seriousness of the consequences and the simple means to avoid them, ethics would have demanded that the doctor washes his hands.

This leads to the 3rd central concept of ethics

Philosophy
	Long-term planning and stability have to be the guiding rules of politics. A philosophy based on the mathematic branch of games theory.

Ethics as the logics of survival
	Survival as the target, ethics as the science of implementing this target. Of course, we must then define who, how and over what time period survival refers to in this context.

Cosmic threat for mankind: meteorites
	According to game theory, the task of intelligent life is to protect the home planet from catastrophes. Let's look at the ethics related to this.

Civilization decision
	Back to the simple life or on to a hightech civilization? An ethics evaluation gives a clear answer to the course that should be taken.

Verifying knowledge
	Central concept 2 - knowledge changes what ethical decisions are - necessarily leads to central concept 3: Ethics force us to verify knowledge

If everybody would do this
	Consequences for the areas of survival family, group and mankind. An estimation of consequences always starts with the question ''If everybody did this...''.

Division of labour in society
	Can each individual engage in ethics to such an extent that they can work out a complete answer to each basic situation in their life by themselves?

Organisation of society
	A society should be organized in such a way that the science of survival, called ethics, is in harmony with the generally accepted views of society.

Ethics for groups
	The guidelines for a group should be configured in such a way that the decisions of individuals are influenced in a direction that is of benefit for the group.