The Moral Instinct & Values-based Motivation Theory

Without a moral instinct, humanity would be long dead - mankind would have destroyed itself very quickly without it.

If we indeed have a moral instinct, moral philosophy (as an academic discipline) will soon be followed by moral psychology and moral science - et al.

The Moral Instinct manifests itself in our human Values :

The Symonds Mega Motivation Theory states that "we are instinctively motivated by Values of which we can conceive of nothing greater".

We can discover these Values (or, Mega Motivations) by using 'The Anselm Acid Test' - such Values/Motivations tend to fall into one of seven 'baskets' :

1. Beauty
2. Freedom
3. Happiness
4. Life
5. Love
6. Peace
7. Truth

These seven Mega Motivations/Values are "TRANS-IMMANENT" in the sense that they are "transcendent of" the human mind (that is, objectively found as 'given' in things - and valued as ends in themselves) and "immanent within" the human mind (that is, subjectively projected into things by our minds - and also valued as ends in themselves).

These two orders of reality (ie objective & subjective values) can be seen as ways in which an underlying unity can be made manifest - in perhaps the same way as objective sunlight and the subjective human eye can make manifest the seven unified colours of a rainbow.