Proper behavior, under cognitive ethics, is the searching way. "Seek and Ye shall know," is the foundation stone of the cognitive ethic. The proper way to behave is the way that comes from knowing reality. If it is realistic that one should suffer, then it is good to suffer. If it is realistic to be happy, then it is good to be happy. If the situation calls for authoritarianism, then it is proper to be authoritarian, and if the situation calls for democracy, it is good to be democratic. Behavior is right, is moral, within the cognitive ethic, if it is based on the best possible evidence, and no shame should be felt by him who behaved within such limits and failed. The cognitive ethic prescribes that which is seen as right today may not to seen as right tomorrow. And, it prescribes that some behavior which was wrong yesterday, will always be wrong; just as some behavior which was right yesterday, will always be right, because knowledge tell us this is so. But, this aspect of morality, this ethic based on knowledge, demonstrates the need for a still higher level of behavior - - the level of understanding.

Man’s behavior, at all levels, involves the need to understand. At any level of development man tries to understand his universe, and to order his knowledge into some design for living and some explanation of it all. But only when cognitive needs are freed by automatic satisfaction of survival, safety, approval and esteem needs, and only when man ‘knows’ will he see the need for a new ordering of his knowledge. And, only when cognition is free will man understand why each person, in his own time, in his own place, and in his own circumstances, must develop his own faith, his own ordering of knowledge, his own vision of the meaning of it all. Such understanding can come only from the deepest compassion. Therefore, I call the sixth ethic, the ethic of compassion.

The ethic of compassion is based on comprehension, understanding, sympathy and empathy. The proper way to behave is to feel for and to feel with. It is good to help a person be what he is, and it is good to help him see that he does not live alone. It is good to help him achieve what he must achieve in order to grow, to progress, to move in the direction of being free. It is good to understand that freedom’s road is a road which all men, in all times, must travel from beginning to end. All hills, all valleys must be traversed, all bumps must be taken, all detours followed. There is no jet trip one can take from the lowest level of human existence to the highest level of human potential. Once man, through his struggle for survival and safety, through his search for approval and esteem, through the gifts of cognition and comprehension arrives at the seventh ethical stage, he will see why it is named the ethic of awe.

Awe is defined as the feeling of emotion inspired by the contemplation of something magnificent; a sense of profound admiration and respect, and this describes precisely the meaning of the ethic of awe. Who could deny, once he understands ethical development, that the seventh level must designate appreciation of it all as the test of proper behavior. Profound respect and admiration for everyone and everything, coupled with a deep emotional feeling of life’s magnificence, makes up the ethic of awe. Do whatever one needs to do so that all humans can partake the awesome experience; don’t contain human nature is the dictum of this ethic. Who would deny the power in the feeling that it is good to help man, any man, whose behavior evidences he is trying to aid the mass of humanity to move up the scale of development? And who could deny that it is good for man to move to the highest level, the level of self-actualization of need and the level of humanly ethical behavior? Probably he will deny who questions the premise of this theory, and probably he will deny who questions that man is basically good. Yet, one doubts if he would question the character of the human ethic.

According to this theory of ethical evolution, the human ethic is the highest level to which man can aspire. It will be, when achieved, the epitome of ethical and moral development, and our questions now are these: Within the human ethic, what will man value? What will he consider is proper human behavior? It will consist of the lasting qualities of all other ethics through which man has evolved, and these will be functionally subordinated within the over-all value for self-actualization. At the level of the human ethic, man will believe it is proper to trust the inherent goodness of all men. This faith in the species, mankind, will be a derivative of the sacrificial ethic. Valuing autonomy and freedom of action will be found as the lasting sign of the Machiavellian ethic. From the third evolutionary stage, the conformistic ethic, will come the belief that one should be one with all mankind.