A View of Moral Behavior

The large context of human behavior consists of scalar fields (the dark), pure, unknowable energy, decaying into measurable particles (the light). Human beings are composed of such particles and, whatever the unmoved mover of scalar fields consists of - God, gods, or force, exist in the universe of the demiurge creating order, such as human beings, out of chaos.
In such mechanical confusion what moral compass exists that can guide human beings in their incidental and strategic behavior. That compass is self-interest, especially in the large sense, and self-aggrandizement, also especially in the large sense. Both of these prescripts are interpreted in terms of happiness, existence in meaning, and the pursuit of happiness, moving to the light, creating order out of chaos in order to be happier, to increase the possibility of meaning which is structural and contingent.
In contrast to this schema are unstable exercises of control that decrease meaning as well as the destructive madness of crowds undermining social structures, meaning, and happiness. The Twentieth century was a history of such anti-social, in the sense of moral behavior, exercises. The net result of this destruction of civilization is a great nihilist age in which meaning is dear and moral behavior rare.
We civilizados are in the position of an ancient Byzantine monastery in a hostile wilderness, carrying civilization without quite being civilized. The possible severely limits what moral action can be taken. Martyrs are useful to posterity in ennobling a social structure being set. A civilizado going away in a dark alley for no sustainable gain in meaning is not the stuff of martyrdom.
Thus, simply put, moral behavior consists of action, myth creation motivating such action, database creation, and paradigm development generating humane, sustainable order out of chaos to the limit of the possible. Neither grandiose ambitions nor libertine indulgence reference the limits of the possible, the first being routinely disastrous and the second being positively uncivilizing. If civilization is a vehicle for consistently moral behavior, then this is the essence of it.
Next: Markets and Moral Behavior
Be well and do well.

@BasilBrylcreem