Morality as a side-effect of meaning selection

Abstract

This note argues that what we conventionally call moral norms are best understood as the equilibrium of a selection process operating not on behaviors directly but on which meanings a community can collectively sustain. The framing inverts the usual move (norms constrain meanings) and predicts which moral systems are stable across scale.

Status

Working draft; not yet circulated. The argument hinges on a measure of "meaning carrying capacity" that I have not formalized. The bib key above is reserved against an eventual writeup.