The problem, as I see it, with establishing a morality that is beyond everyday experience is one of interpretation.

If a set of codices is outside of our everyday walkabout world, then how can they to be interpreted and applied? It would seem that interpreting something that is beyond the normal realm of experience might proved too daunting a task unless a person has academic training and a special interest in learning. This might prove to be a failure of the test that morals be able to be correct for everybody and able to be universally applied.

This inherent, instinctual set of values is what Kant called "a priori" knowledge.

"A priori" is defined several ways. It can mean valid independent of observation. Another way to define it is "existing in the mind prior to and independent of experience, as a faculty or character trait."

The problem, I think, with this - with ethics and morals being a priori knowledge - is that in this era of short attention spans, quick and easy solutions, and the 15-second sound bite - there seems to be a large number of people who won't (can't? don't) understand these concepts. Instead, they allow someone else to interpret them and then tell them what to do. They allow some other person - preacher, friend, boss, spouse, random person on the street - to dictate what this information is. Ethics therefore has become something that is relative, conditional, or everchanging.

On the other hand, Sartre and the idea of existentialism says that every person is responsible for their own actions. And their actions in turn set a standard for how they believe other people

should act. TO take this further and to personalize it I will apply it to myself. In acting a certain way - say it is being kind to animals - I ipso facto state that all men should be kind to animals.

To me, the tenants of existentialism, with man being the beginning and the end, with the only meaning we derive out of life is the meaning we attach to it, is the most logical and effective way of living. I don't rely on some sort of external father-figure looking down on heaven telling me what to do. I don't allow some authority figure with a vested interest in controlling my actions guiding and cajoling me. No, I make my own morals, I set my own course, I make my existence mean exactly what I want it to mean.