Defining the Situation
The first step is to define the general situation by giving it a name and providing a brief description with as much detail as necessary.
This helps establish clarity before diving into moral analysis. Included in this step is a state check-in, where you take a moment to reflect on your mental, emotional, and physical state.
This is an essential part of the process because your current condition affects your judgment. By recognizing your biases early, you create a clearer foundation for the rest of the calculus.
Identifying People, Entities, and Abstracts
Once the situation is defined, you will add the key elements involved in the moral landscape. These include people, entities, and abstracts that relate to the situation.
People refer to individuals actively involved.
Entities are groups, companies, organizations, or even animals, any collective system that interacts with the situation. Each entity has its own needs and values, such as a company prioritizing profit and public perception.
Abstracts act as floating points in the system, representing concepts, values, or beliefs that influence the people and entities. If someone is deeply attached to an idea, such as justice or freedom, it may be beneficial to model it as its own entity to better capture its role in the relational field.
Defining Needs and Values
Once people, entities, and abstracts are entered, the next step is to assign their needs and values. Each person and entity has specific needs and guiding values that shape their decisions. Abstracts, however, do not operate independently, they exist only in relation to people and entities, serving as forces that influence their behavior.
Determining Influence and Hierarchy of Care
Now that the moral field has been outlined, you evaluate how much you care about each person, entity, or abstract, and how much power they have in shaping the situation.
This step captures interpersonal and systemic power dynamics, making it easier to understand responsibility and influence. You will create a hierarchy of care that represents your emotional investment and a hierarchy of power that shows who has the most control.
These hierarchies help define moral responsibility and ethical leverage within the system.
Mapping Relationships
This step involves establishing the relationships between all elements in the system—people, entities, and abstract concepts. Understanding these connections allows you to see the full web of alliances, tensions, and power structures that define a given moral landscape.
You can classify relationships as:
Positive – A friendly, cooperative, or supportive relationship.
Neutral – An indifferent or unaffiliated connection.
Negative – A hostile, conflicting, or adversarial relationship.
Authority – A power dynamic where one entity has influence over another.
How to Use This Function
To map a relationship, simply:
- Select the type of relationship you want to define.
- Click on the first entity (person, group, abstract concept, or even another relationship).
- Click on the second entity that the first one relates to.
- The system will automatically create the connection between them.
This creates a dynamic web that visually represents the alliances, conflicts, and power structures at play.
Authority Relationships
Authority relationships are directional, meaning that power flows from one entity to another.
For example, if Craig is the boss of Tom and Jill, the relationship would be mapped as:
Craig → Authority → Tom & Jill
Authority relationships help determine who holds influence, who enforces decisions, and how power is distributed within the system.
Second-Order Relationships (Relational Perspectives)
This system also allows for second-order relationships, where individuals can express opinions about existing relationships.
For example:
Alice and Bob are friends (Positive Relationship).
Carol, who dislikes Bob, disapproves of Alice’s friendship with him.
This second-order relationship is mapped as:
Carol → Disapproves → Alice ↔ Bob
This enables a deeper layer of analysis, capturing not just direct relationships but how others perceive them.
Third-Order Relationships (Intergroup & Structural Dynamics)
For even more complex social structures, you can create third-order relationships—where entire groups, individuals, and value systems interact.
For example, imagine two opposing factions in a conflict:
The factions hate each other (Negative Relationship).
However, some individual members secretly get along, despite the broader conflict.
This system lets you model intergroup tensions, tracking how both individual and collective perspectives interact.
Considering Context and Time
Once the internal moral landscape is structured, it’s important to situate it within a broader external context.
This includes cultural, socioeconomic, and legal frameworks that affect the situation. If external systems, such as law enforcement, financial structures, or historical precedents, are relevant, they should be noted here. Additionally, time plays a role in moral decision-making. This step encourages you to reflect on whether your decision is a short-term fix or part of a long-term ethical strategy. While this input currently does not alter the system, it serves as a critical self-reflection tool.
Strategy and Reflection
At this stage, you have completed the full moral calculus model. You will now see a summary of all entered data, structured as a table for easy reference. Below this, a graph visualization of the moral field can be generated by clicking refresh graph. If changes need to be made, you can edit any component in the table and update the graph dynamically. With this complete, it’s time to step back and reflect. Consider how you relate to the situation and the strategies available for moving forward.
AI Analysis (Optional) After reflection, you can choose to generate an AI-assisted summary of the moral field. The AI will never dictate your decision, but it can highlight key insights, such as contradictions, tensions, and possible strategies. It provides suggestions but leaves all moral responsibility entirely in your hands.
Final Thoughts Moral Calculus is more than just a tool for ethical analysis, it is a new way to see moral landscapes as dynamic, relational structures. Instead of simply asking “What is right?”, it reframes the question as “What forces are at play?” and “How do relationships shape ethical responsibility?”. By making moral complexity visible and actionable, this system allows for more precise, flexible, and comprehensive moral decision-making.