Discussing with friends, I’ve stumbled upon the idea of morality as a sort of consistency.

For example, let’s say country X has a government and constitution based on the rule of law and human rights. Country X also trades and cooperates with country Y, whose government has little regard for rule of law and human rights. If country X justifies this by saying that it is only taking into account the interests of its own citizens, this could be considered immoral, since it is not caring at all about the rights of the citizens of country Y. Interestingly, this is an inconsistency in the way government X treats humans living in different countries.

Another example is a person Z in a monogamic relationship who would never want their partner to be intimate with a third person. However, Z occasionally engages in affaires with other third persons, keeping it hidden from their partner. This is also generally considered immoral, since it’s an act of deceit. Interestingly, this is too an inconsistency in the way Z handles a breach of trust.

Could most immoral decisions be understood as a lack of consistency between how you treat yourself (or the group closer to you) vs the other (or more distant groups of humans)? I’m going to keep an eye on this idea.