An algebraic model of ethical cognition

Abstract Special representations of standard Boolean functions allow us to model the process of ethical choice, both as a behavioral process and as a structural description of the subjective inner world of the individual, with its categories such as “good,” “evil,” “doubt,” “compromise,” “conflict,” “suffering,” etc. Two different ethical systems based on different rules for the binary contraposition of “good” and “evil” are postulated. Each ethical system corresponds to its own evaluation of the ethical status of various types of individuals. The hypothesis is proposed that in Western culture and in Soviet culture the different ethical systems are normatively realized, and experimental evidence to support this hypothesis is given. Finally, the axioms that are selected for the two systems are shown to follow from a few precisely stated intuitions that have empirical content.