About

OVERVIEW:
Outline of a new ethic for the information age, acceptable to all humans regardless of religion, ethnicity, or sex, based on good will, cooperation, and equality and the avoidance of domination, deceit, and exploitation. We are not sponsored by any particular religious denomination, by any business organization, government agency, or lobbying group. We do not solicit financial contributions.

WHY WE STRESS INDEPENDENCE:
We believe there should be an autonomous moral voice on the net that can speak with complete integrity. We do not serve as the mouthpiece of any institutionalized entity. Noting that commercial considerations claiming an ever larger share of society as a whole and the web in particular can lead to certain biases, we do not seek grants, accept contributions, run advertisements, or sell products. All our services are offered pro bono.

MISSION:
Our overall objective is to work toward a worldwide consensus on what constitutes right conduct in the age of globalization when the concerns of each are becoming increasingly the business of all, and the failure to live at peace with one another can lead to a universal cataclysm.

NEW ETHIC is a draft or proposal toward the formulation of such a consensus. It aims at finding a minimal code on which agreement is possible. While not interfering with other benevolent approaches, whether intuitive, revealed, or traditional, New Ethic limits its scope to the evidence of reason and experience. Not related to the new-age movement, it is new only in some specific senses: to the extent that historically the elaboration of a democratic value system postdates the code of aggression characterizing authoritarian regimes; in attempting to reconcile contradictions in previous theories; and inasmuch as it is adapted to the conditions and realities of the information age.

ETHICS COUNSELING ONLINE has of late enjoyed growing popularity, applies our principles to practical problems encountered in daily living in the home, workplace, and the public domain. It gives visitors an opportunity to indicate their approval or disapproval as well as express their comments on message boards, rephrase the questions if they think this helpful, and propose different categories for areas we may have missed. The last section, devoted to individual counseling, invites you to state an important decision-making problem you are currently facing in your personal life and would like to receive help on. We promise you a well-considered, compassionate, and hopefully unbiased advice.

UNITED PEOPLE undertakes to carry out the conception expressed above by summoning thoughtful and concerned persons everywhere on the planet to join in. In a preliminary fashion we outline the type of organization needed and propose certain values, but leave the development open for consideration and to be tested by the touchstone of concrete applicability. United People is based on a free association of equals. We have no directors, presidents, vice presidents, officers, or subordinates. There are no membership fees.

ETHICS LINKS is an extensive directory of ethics links arranged by category, provided as a reference guide for persons concerned about moral problems.

APPLIED ETHICS is our position on some controversial and significant issues, such as the nature of rights, the notion of culpability, environmentalism, leadership, and the cult of celebrity.

NEW ETHIC REVIEW serves as our newsletter. Featuring articles of topical interest, important correspondence, criticism, and news, it complements our other websites. We welcome contributions bearing on moral issues from concerned persons.