>>>"You seem to be saying that there's an alpha moral system outside the paradigm of moral systems. It boggles the mind that something could exist beyond itself. It's like there being a universe outside the universe. Does not compute."<<<
I am saying that.
>>>"If you perceive such a thing, perhaps you could name it, if it has a name, and point to where it is documented so that we might glean its message. So far its scope is represented only by your four examples of what is included, patience, generosity, cruelty, and harmful behavior, all of which are all quite prosaic. And all of which describe "how one should act," thus are "secondary" according to you as opposed to supra-paradigm."<<<
I will try to make my understanding of it clearer.
There is the idea or the ideal of morality which is first whole and then part and parcel of the elements. Without attribution to source it has been described as simply an existential/experiential aspect of the human condition. So, we know kindness when we experience it. It is a tender consideration of our well being by another. We understand cruelty as it is self evident in our witnessing of it or when victims of someone else's torment . We know how wrong stealing is when we experience loss at the hands of another. We know these things are right or wrong even if we had no background to explain them as good or bad. We can understand something just feels wrong or right as we experience it. Because we live in our experience, it helps to describe moral experiences using examples and applications. But do the ideas exist separately from application. They do, as much as the number two exists without having two items in front of you to count.
Documentation:
You can go to any philosophical school of thought. Plato saw morality as an 'aim' which required the development of personal virtues to seek and to achieve to some degree. So I suppose morality represented one of Plato's 'Forms' existing in the aether. The fact that we can only measure a relative degree of accomplishment gives evidence of an ideal that is too perfect for human achievement. We can think of the ideal but in practice only reference the ideal.
You can also go to any spiritual school of thought. I like the way it is described in scripture. The truth is written across your heart at birth. Which simply means morality is natural part of the human condition.
Society holds that legally it is expected that any sane human being just knows (as a matter of self evident human consciousness) the difference between right and wrong without having to be instructed in court.
Morality exists apart from the applications which are secondary to the idea, and as an alpha that practical applications can be measured against.
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