The Quantification Of Evil

The author explores various ethical theories, including Ethical Relativism, Feminist Ethics, Kantian deontology, Mill’s consequentialism, and Aristotle’s virtue ethics, highlighting their contributions and limitations. It emphasizes the importance of the "moral ought," a logical foundation for universal justice and law, noting that ethical systems often reflect cultural or ideological biases rather than universally defensible principles. The absence of a universally defensible moral ought leads to the formation of laws rooted in power disparities rather than in intrinsic values and abstract principles.
The argument progresses further, to suggest that the "moral ought" is inherent to reality, akin to natural laws such as gravity. Ownership of what we create, and the right to transfer what we own to a buyer, are posited as universally uncontestable truths. In short, we already quantify evil when we value stolen goods. Evil can be measured based on the value of what is unjustly taken, linking morality to the tangible construct of ownership and evil to offenses against the rightful owner defined by the identity of its creator.