The Golden Rule

Ethics begins with a single insight:

What you will for yourself must also be acceptable for others.

This principle, known as the Golden Rule, has existed in various forms throughout human history. It may be expressed as empathy, fairness, or reciprocity. Its most rigorous formulation comes from Immanuel Kant:

“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”

In essence:

If your action were repeated by everyone, would the pattern it creates still make sense?

This is not about outcomes. It is about consistency. It is a test of whether your choices can form part of a larger ethical pattern—a society where sentient beings coexist in coherent relation.

For example:

If you lie whenever it benefits you, then truth becomes meaningless, and the very concept of trust dissolves.
If you only help others when it costs you nothing, then compassion becomes conditional—and no one can rely on anyone else when it matters most.
If you claim a right for yourself but deny it to others, your ethics collapse into contradiction. You erode the structure you depend on.

The Golden Rule demands structural coherence. It does not require perfection. It requires that your actions could scale—that they could be applied broadly without undermining the very conditions that make them meaningful.

It sustains ethical systems that support coherence, growth, and the flourishing of sentient life.

To act ethically is not merely to follow rules, but to participate in a pattern that could be repeated without breaking.