ABSTRACT
There are certain moral principles that define morality. A system or code of conduct, if truly moral, must be based upon these principles of fairness, freedom, respect for persons, truth, and well-being. There is a self-evident value and desirability about these principles, since to posit unfairness or lack of well-being as goals seems to make no sense; truth and freedom, besides being intuitively preferable to falsehood and enslavement, are built into the very idea of moral conduct, and to treat others as mere means appears to be a flat contradiction of the spirit of morality. In addition, it is plainly to the advantage of all to abide by these principles whether we think in terms of the common good or in terms of the majority.
