Site Mission

The Peace Legacy website has been created to explore a new way build a world at peace. The Principle of Goodness is an anti-ideology that simplys says: Never deliberately harm an innocent, and try to work for the benefit of everyone. Sounds simple, maybe too simple, but surprisingly, this brief ethical rule provides powerful insights into how to devise good laws and social policies and how to live an ethical life. Here we are 'trying out' the Principle on the most important problem we have: avoiding a senseless, human-caused disaster that would wreak havoc upon ourselves and upon the other creatures sharing our beautiful planet with us, and securing for our descendants a happy, peaceful world.

This is so different from 'business-as-usual' that a few extra comments are in order. The Principle of Goodness is not an ideology. Ideologies typically propose some all-encompassing explanation or solution; they usually have an in-group and an out-group, a group to love and a group to hate. Feminism has women-good and men-bad; communism has proletariat-good and bourgeoisie-bad. Environmentalism has nature-good and industrial society-bad. And so on. But the Principle is not a proposal about the root causes of things or the one right solution to all our problems; it simply puts forward a proposal about what constitutes good and evil, a proposal that differs from the usual utilitarian assumption that one's moral duty (good) is maximising happiness and minimising pain. We are devoted here to exploring solutions for peace that adhere to the Principle's precepts to never deliberately harm any innocent, and to try at all times to include everyone's welfare in one's plans.

Because the Principle is so new, we shall also include discussions about the Principle itself (in addition to applications of it) so we can all explore together its implications.