In science, moral movement or ‘moral motion’ refers to motions directed based on a theory of morality, which equates to daily directions of prescribed ‘good’ or ‘bad’ (or evil) trajectories, motions, or actions.
History
The first and most dominate system of guided moral movement was the circa 2500BC Ra theology based notion of 42 negative confessions or forbidden actions, weighted digressions of which would result in a person’s soul not be permitted into the afterlife. This model was carried over into modern-day Abrahamic and Brahmaic religions, via syncretism and modification, the core to each of these being the circa 3500BC cyclical birth death resurrection/reincarnation theory of Ra the sun god.
The first to outline a non-deity physical-chemistry based British philosopher John Stewart and his 1789 "moral motion" theory, in which he did away with all of the mythological terms ‘life’, ‘death’, ‘god’, etc., and replaced these with modern physical sciences (astronomy, physics, and chemistry) based theory of ‘moral motion’, wherein man is viewed as an intelligent type of animate matter, made of particles (atoms), and that all that exists in the universe is matter and motion. Stewart called this "natural religion" [1]
In 2010, American neuroscience philosopher Sam Harris attempted to outlined a so-called science-based "moral landscape" theory or system of morality, but conditioned his position by stating abruptly that: [2]
“I am certainly not claiming that moral truth exists independent of the experience of conscious beings or that certain actions are intrinsically wrong.”
In other words, although Harris argues for a type of universal morality, he states in opposition that right and wrong does not exist in the structure of the universe, and specifically that certain "actions" or movements cannot be quantified moralistically.
References
1. (a) Stewart, John. (1789). Travels to Discover the Source of Moral Motion (volume one) (energy, 35+ pgs; heat, 8+ pgs; The Religion of Nature, pg. 75-). Ridgway.
(b) Stewart, John. (1790). The Apocalypse of Nature: wherein the Source of Moral Motion is Discovered (volume two). Ridgway.
(b) Griffiths, Ralph. (1791). The Monthly Review, Volume 5 (Art. VI, Review: Travels Over the Most Interesting Parts of the Globe and The Apocalypse of Nature, pgs. 144-46). G. Griffiths.
2. Harris, Sam. (2010). Moral Landscapes (pg. 30). Free Press.
