Ought proposes a theory of political morality that meets the definition of what philosopher John Rawls would have called «perfect procedural justice», a process with an independent criterion for a just outcome and a procedure guaranteed to produce that outcome. The «Unified Theory» claims that there is a unitary optimum for utility, morality and freedom. This is the holy grail of political and moral philosophy.
The Unified Theory asserts that all humans are endowed with a universal goal that is imprinted in all of us by natural selection-this is called «utility». This goal provides each individual with an independent criterion for intuiting the motivations of others. It gives us the capacity for interpersonal moral experience. The Unified Theory claims that utility is observable and measurable.
Culture is the experiential milieu in which we cooperate socially with others. Language, history, tradition, religion and rituals are channels through which we communicate a sense of shared selfhood and moral reciprocity. Individuals are evolutionarily wired to cooperate with others in a shared culture and to be suspicious and hostile towards those of alien cultures.
The Unified Theory can explain the source of both moral reciprocity within a culture and the suspicion and hostility towards others outside the culture. Opposing cultures each have a self-righteous belief in their own moral superiority and a conviction that the other is an existential threat. These are emotive moral convictions, exploited by politicians, that arise from our evolutionary past.
Fortunately, because these moral convictions have reasons even if they are not reasoned, they are subject to rational deliberation. The Unified Theory gives us the tools to navigate the difficult cultural and political issues that arise as we seek a sustainable framework for living together in a pluralistic world.
