The Baseline Fallacy

Ethics

Most people define their moral standing by what they don't do. They aren't thieves. They aren't liars. They don't kick dogs. This is a baseline of non-malice. It treats morality like a checklist of avoided crimes. If the metric for being a good person is simply the absence of negative data points, the sample size of actual virtue is pretty small. There is a difference between being harmless and being helpful. One is a default state; the other requires effort. I suspect we overhype the value of the former because it is easier to maintain.