Category Archives: Ethics & Metaethics

Logic Venn of Opposition

Posted on August 12, 2026 by Maryann Spikes

So far I’ve only linked to my work-in-progress Logic Venn of Opposition within at least one blog post on this blog—it has never stood in its own blog post. I’m at a point I’m ready to share it. Still a … Continue reading →

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The Three Questions

Posted on April 23, 2026 by Maryann Spikes

The Three Fundamental/Essential Questions Two more versions of the same set of questions: “Why is there something rather than nothing?”  “Is change an illusion?” // Can people change? “What is the meaning of life?”  *** What is it? How does it … Continue reading →

Posted in Divine Essentialism, Epistemology, Ethics & Metaethics, Euthyphro Dilemma, Is-Ought Fallacy, Justified True Belief, Ontological Argument | Leave a comment

Responding to Mortimer J. (Naturally)

Posted on April 3, 2026 by Maryann Spikes

If you need a “yellow △ blue △ red” decoder for my comments bracketed into Adler’s below, please use “is/fact △ ought △ value” or “being △ action △ quality” or “formal/material △ final/ought △ formal/final” (going around & around … Continue reading →

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Seeing Beauty in Science, Calling it Good

Posted on March 20, 2026 by Maryann Spikes

https://copilot.microsoft.com/shares/8Yi1kfd6LkCWY1skXDHbT MORE. (indexed below the following index) Index of Topics Covered in First Link Copilot: Here’s a clean, compact index of the scientific domains we’ve covered so far, each interpreted through the Red–Blue–Yellow triadic metaphysical logic. I’ll keep it brief, … Continue reading →

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UNITY‑IN‑DISTINCTION AS A METAPHYSICAL LOGIC

Posted on March 20, 2026 by Maryann Spikes

Articulated with the immeasurably helpful assistance of Copilot (read discussion). See Aquinas as an example (including AQUINAS VS. WILLIAM LANE CRAIG ON DIVINE SIMPLICITY). UNITY‑IN‑DISTINCTION AS A METAPHYSICAL LOGIC Being △ Action △ Quality as a Unified, Irreducible, Mutually‑Implicating Structure … Continue reading →

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Solve for x (good) & y (great/beautiful)

Posted on November 26, 2025 by Maryann Spikes

Following up on a segment of my last post, “It’s a greater ‘neutral value’ view that considers competing goods as neutral values before they are in the context of a decisive action,” from Graded Absolutism Revisited: Ordered Neutral Values, I … Continue reading →

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Graded Absolutism Revisited: Ordered Neutral Values

Posted on November 16, 2025 by Maryann Spikes

Generations of people who survived childhood are evidence of a mother’s nurturing and a father’s protection—or some other caregivers who stood in their places. At the animal level it involves following a program of parental empathy. At the intentional level … Continue reading →

Posted in Apologetics, Divine Essentialism, Ethics & Metaethics, Golden Rule, Harmonic Triads, Is-Ought Fallacy | 1 Comment

Rules: Descriptive, Prescriptive, and Purposive

Posted on October 22, 2025 by Maryann Spikes

Sparked by a “separation of church and state” discussion with my youngest son, David, and his beloved, Holly. Separation of Church/Religion and State/Science Science is descriptive – it cannot a) prescribe anything, or b) have a purpose behind it. It’s … Continue reading →

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Harmonic Triads Reference, Current Index

Posted on October 1, 2025 by Maryann Spikes

This index is not exhaustive, but current as of October 2025: The first fallacy: Ought-Value or Action-Quality Conflation On the impossibility of knowing a true tenseless fact without omnitemporality (read all the comments) Elaborating on C Theory Logic Venn (of Opposition/Reconciliation) C Theory … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Ethics & Metaethics, Harmonic Triads, Is-Ought Fallacy, Justified True Belief | 3 Comments

The first fallacy: Ought-Value or Action-Quality Conflation

Posted on August 8, 2025 by Maryann Spikes

The first fallacy in philosophy, and not just the philosophy of ethics, is neither just the is-ought fallacy, nor just the failure to respect the fact-value distinction, but the fallacy of confusing the former for the latter: conflating oughts and values. This is relevant across every field, not just ethics, because it boils down and adds up to confusing action and quality. Together with the is/fact (substance) element from the first two fallacies, these three elements constitute the is-ought-value distinction, or the substance, action, quality triad. All three are required to obtain true, justified belief (knowledge) about anything, in any field of philosophy (including all the sciences). They are required together, but distinctly. One cannot stand in for either of the others.

But let’s begin in the field of ethics… Continue reading →

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