Free Will, Conscience, and the Ground of Human Action Within Soyo Existence Ethics – Chapter 85

Beyond Kantian Deontology – Returning to the Ethics of Existence

Soyo Existence Ethics (Existence itself is Ethics)

Reexamining the Criterion of Human Action

The history of philosophy has always begun with the effort to understand human behavior.

Why do we choose specific actions? By what standard do we divide them into “right” or “wrong”? Kant responded to this question with decisive clarity:

"The moral worth of an action lies not in its consequences, but in its motive and guiding principle."

In other words, what matters is not what we do, but why we do it and on what grounds our intention stands. His claim became a foundational pillar of modern ethics. However, Soyo Existence Ethics raises more profound and fundamental questions:

Where do those motives and principles originate?

What is the first ground of “why”?

Kant attempted to answer these through the faculty of reason. Yet Soyo looks beyond reason into the more bottomless abyss of human existence and into the inner chamber where conscience, pain, freedom, and spiritual breath reside.

Duty Creates Morality, but Ethics Creates the Human Being

Most of what we call “moral obligation” is taught from early childhood.

Parents tell their children:

• Don’t lie.

• Help others.

• Keep your promises.

These are nearly identical to the Kantian moral duties. Yet such rules are primarily social techniques for survival and order, as well as instructions for “living well” within a community.

Here, Soyo makes a decisive distinction between duty and ethics:

Duty

• Socially prescribed rules

• A mechanism to minimize interpersonal conflict

• Norms produced by education, culture, and institutions

• External demands imposed upon the individual

Ethics

• The existential light that flows from the human conscience

• A lived posture chosen through free will

• The awakening of the soul from the depths of existence

• Decisions that arise not from the outside, but from within

Thus, Soyo declares:

“Morality protects human life, but ethics gives life to the human soul.”

Kant blurred this distinction. As a result, ethics was reduced to a technique of rule-following.

But ethics is not a rule; it is the breath of existence. Ethics is not judgment; it is the awakening of conscience. Ethics is not the outcome; it is the inner cry and confession of the soul.

Why Motives and Principles Cannot Be the Foundation of Ethics

Kant claimed that the moral worth of an action is determined by motive and principle. Yet he never answered where those motives and principles begin. He never addressed their existential origin.

“Most motives and principles arise from social conditioning.”

We too easily accept the phrase “you must.” But this phrase is essentially the product of family, schools, cultural norms, and societal expectations. This is, in essence, a survival rule. Breaking it invites criticism, exclusion, or moral accusation. But this is not ethics. It is a social tool. It is a technique of living. Ethics goes deeper. Ethics is the resonance of existence.

Thus, Soyo declares:

“Motives and principles are often the result of social conditioning, not the source of ethics.”

Ethics does not arise from externally imposed rules, but from the quiet truth whispered by the conscience within.

The Limits of Kantian Ethics Revealed Through the White Lie

Kant categorically prohibited lying. But the world of human life is not so simple.

Soyo says,:

"Some lies save lives. Some lies protect the vulnerable. Some lies preserve relationships. And some lies are another name for love.

Soyo Existence Ethics explains:

• From the standpoint of morality, a white lie is a lie → a violation of duty.

• From the standpoint of ethics, a white lie can be love → a movement of conscience.

Thus, morality and ethics speak in entirely different languages. Kant failed to see this. He mistook rules for ethics and reduced the human soul to a moral machine. But humans are not constructed from regulations. Humans are built from conscience. Rules shift with circumstances, but conscience does not.

“The ethics of conscience are unchanging, while morality is fluid.”

Where Does Free Will Originate? Reason or Conscience?

For Kant, free will is rational autonomy. But Soyo Existence Ethics seeks a deeper origin:

“When a human being chooses to do good, that choice does not arise from rational computation, but from the cry of conscience.”

Why do we choose love?

Why do we forgive?

Why do we dare to face the truth?

Why do we accept the burden of sacrifice?

These are not acts of rule-obedience. They are movements of the soul. Thus, Soyo defines free will:

“Free will is the divine imprint moving within human conscience.”

Here, Kant and Soyo diverge completely:

• Kant sees the human as a rational calculator.

• Soyo sees the human as a being of conscience and soul. 

• Kant produces moral rules. Soyo produces the ethics of conscience.

Why Kantian Deontology Becomes a Philosophy That Dismantles the Human Being

Kant taught that humans must obey rules. But rule-following is often shaped by external systems, institutions, and societal pressures.

• Kant viewed ethics as an external action.

• Soyo views ethics as an internal existence.

• For Kant, man is a subject of rational mathematics.

• For Soyo, man is a being infused with the breath of God.

“When deontological thinking is applied to ethics, the human being is dismantled.”

When ethics becomes a rule, the human becomes a slave to rules, conscience grows silent, and the soul loses its voice. Philosophy must exist to save the human being. A philosophy that binds humans with rules is a system that imprisons the soul. Hence, Soyo Existence Ethics transcends Kantian deontology.

Ethics Is Not a Rule; It Is the Light of Existence

Kantian philosophy placed humanity before the command:

“You must!”

Soyo Existence Ethics places humanity before a different calling:

“You must live!”

Duty answers to society, and Ethics answers to conscience. Morality is a technique of life, and Ethics is the life of the soul. An age creates principles. The Eternal creates conscience.

Kant sought to preserve the world through rules. Soyo Existence Ethics aims to restore the world through conscience by declaring:

“Ethics is the moment the human soul awakens, and in that awakening, the human is no longer defined by rules but is called by the name of the Eternal.”

Soyo Thesis (Final Proposition)

“Ethics derived from duty is rooted in heteronomy, while ethics derived from conscience arises from the free will embedded within the fullness of human existence. Though these two forms of freedom seem similar, their origins differ completely, and so do their outcomes. Human rules create duty-based ethics, but conscience-based ethics springs from the divine imprint within the human interior. Their difference is proven only through the ethics of conscience chosen and lived through human suffering.”

Soyo (逍遙) – Founder of Soyo Existence Ethics. Author of The Silence of Existence and The Flame of Truth

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