Well, we tend to believe, we humans, that we can see and aspire to a more refined order than simply responding to our natural impulses to avoid pain, eat, multiply and such. There are plenty of instances where an ethical choice includes taking pain on, in exchange for some benefit, such as throwing yourself on a grenade to save several colleagues in war. We have invented expressions like "higher purpose" and "greatest good". My point was that while these may be elegant and aesthetic, they are just elegant judgements and opinions. Some people may consider them inherent in the system. For example, the "goodness" of following the dictates of a given scripture, or a given guru, even if it is contradictory and unclear. No inherent virtue to it except int he opinion that it will lead somewhere "better".


A