Dear Toby,
Thanks for reading my essay, and your vote.
Some disconnected thoughts on your essay:
To say there is no collectivity, (which you don't,) no such entity as society, is the ant denying she is part of an ant colony.
I think pleasure exists beyond reinforcement mechanisms. Life is good. Internal feedback mechanisms can result in positive outlook, or a negative one, independent of environment. Is the development of such internal feedback mechanisms a proper goal of education? Does meditation help you cope, or is it a happy delusion?
Moral philosophy may be intrinsically unsolvable, (or just poorly posed.) Consider just the 'Problem of Evil.' (See Wikipedia) Any explanation of evil excuses, and in a sense, justifies it.
Yet there seems to be such a thing as an absolute good. Societies most of whose individuals adopt 'good' behaviors tend to prosper. If we may use that as a definition?
"Though the many ideologies are developed with little regard for evidence or rigor, the belief in these ideologies have had a significant influence on the development of society, its laws and its economic activity." Very nicely said.
As for feedback, I am interested in how people can be incentivized to do the 'global' good, to do that which is good for all, and not just for themselves. If everyone externalizes the costs of their profits onto others, the net is everyone is worse off. And the harder people work at this, the faster the worse off they are. One must do good by oneself, and others, but one must internalize the costs. Anti-pollution laws, for instance, are a good step toward this.
PS. Time's up. I never did figure out about my author code.
Charles