Amoral egoism

It is obvious that individuals commit actions. These actions are motivated by their desires and their self-interest—for example committing charity improves one’s self-image. Pyotr Kropotkin in an anarchists morality said “If the man who gives away his last shirt found no pleasure in doing so, he would not do it. If he found pleasure in taking bread from a child, he would do that but this is distasteful to him. He finds pleasure in giving, so he gives.”

There have been thousands of different moral systems posited throughout the history of mankind each which prescribes different actions and thoughts as good and others as bad creating a moral imperative to act a certain manner. Authority implies an actual ability to influence behavior which requires acceptance from the individual. As without acceptance, the individual feels no real internal reason to believe it. Furthermore, all external rules require internal acceptance to obtain legitimacy. For example, laws require individuals to endorse them or else they are just threats with no binding force just enforcement in certain scenarios.

Therefore, all legitimacy for any moral system derives from the individuals acceptance of that moral system. One might argue that moral authority can exist independently of acceptance, in the same way that logical truths do. However, unlike logical truths, moral rules require motivation to influence behavior. Without internal acceptance, they fail to function as reasons for action, and thus lack practical authority.

Individuals who recognize this fact are truly free. Since any abstract moral system cannot bind them they use them solely as tools. Their values are self-created and ultimately the individual is the sole source of all meaning. Internalized guilt’s power will lessen as you no longer split yourself into two and judge your own actions by any external standard. Duty collapses into preference and obligation into motovation.

This is not to say that you must adopt this view. There is no prescription that this system gives but this outlines some basic practical benefits of such a system along with true freedom that it allows.