AIM Framework glossary

Self-Model Moral Boundary Principle

Canonical definition

Moral labelling of others is architecturally a function of Self-Model Inversion operating on rival-constituted identity, such that (a) the Self-Model, substantially constituted through M-contaminated comparison, generates contrast categories for every positive self-attribution, (b) these contrast categories are stigmatised, externalised, and essentialised as stable character traits rather than situational responses, (c) moral vocabulary attaches to these contrast categories, transforming them from descriptive labels into permission infrastructure for targeting, and (d) "evil" is therefore not an independent ethical discovery but an architecturally predictable output of Self-Model maintenance under rivalry conditions, definitionally relative to the labelling Individual's Self-Model rather than an objective property of the labelled Individual's behaviour. Because Self-Models are path-dependent (each Individual's Belief Package is the unique product of non-commutative information encounter) and because the rival constituting the Self-Model differs across Individuals, the content of "evil" varies across Individuals, reference groups, and historical epochs while the generative mechanism remains invariant.

Explanation

"Evil" is not something you discover in the world. It is something your brain generates to protect your self-concept. Your identity is partly built by comparing yourself to rivals (you are what they are not). Your brain then creates a mirror-image category for every positive trait you claim: if you see yourself as honest, the contrast category is "dishonest"; if hardworking, "lazy." Moral language attaches to these mirror-image categories, turning them into labels you apply to others. Because different people have different rivals and different self-concepts, different people (and different societies in different eras) label different things as evil. What counts as evil in medieval Christendom, in revolutionary France, in 1990s Rwanda, or in any modern democracy is not converging on a single Truth. It is tracking the Self-Model maintenance needs of the dominant reference group in each epoch. The mechanism producing the label is always the same. The content of the label shifts with whoever is doing the labelling.

Epistemic status

Framework-Specific Principle.

Derivation

Chapter 11, Section 11.8.1.

Related terms