Moral Gravity

Definition

Moral Gravity is the human system’s intuitive, sixth-sense-like perception of proportional alignment: the felt ability to detect when truth, signals, structure, and intention are in or out of proportion. It is the experiential dimension of Meaning System Science: the internal “pull” that alerts individuals to coherence, distortion, legitimacy, or drift before they can articulate the cause.

Moral Gravity does not emerge from moralizing or intuition alone. It is the affective-perceptual counterpart to Proportionism and Moral Physics.

Core Principle

Humans are proportion-sensing organisms.

Before conscious reasoning, people can feel:

• when something is true or untrue

• when power is aligned or misaligned

• when signals ring clear or hollow

• when structure supports or suppresses

• when drift is rising

• when legitimacy is stable or collapsing

Moral Gravity is the embodied detection system for the proportional forces (T, P, C, D, A) that govern meaning.

What Moral Gravity Feels Like

Moral Gravity expresses itself as:

• a pull toward clarity

• discomfort in distortion

• acceleration when truth emerges

• heaviness when drift accumulates

• relief when coherence restores

• tension when signals contradict

• resonance when alignment is present

These sensations precede formal interpretation. Meaning is felt before it is understood.

Relationship to Meaning System Science

Moral Gravity is the affective-perceptual integration of the five scientific domains:

• Semantics: we feel when truth is stable or unstable

• Semeiology: we feel when signals match or mismatch intent

• Systems Theory: we feel when structure is coherent or brittle

• Thermodynamics: we feel drift as emotional or cognitive load

• Affective Science: emotional circuits detect proportionality

Where MSS describes meaning behavior, Moral Gravity describes meaning sensing.

Relationship to Moral Physics

Moral Gravity is the human experience of the First Law:

L = (T × P × C) ÷ D × A

People intuitively detect:

• rising drift (D) as strain

• strong truth (T) as clarity

• aligned signals (P) as trustworthiness

• coherent structure (C) as safety

• affective regulation (A) as calm or relief

Moral Gravity is the phenomenological output of this proportional system.

It is how legitimacy is felt in the body.

Relationship to Transformation Science

Transformation Science uses Moral Gravity to explain:

• why people sense misalignment before leaders acknowledge it

• why “something feels off” precedes governance strain

• why trust collapses the moment distortion rises

• why teams detect drift long before data reflects it

• why meaning restoration feels grounding

• why legitimacy can be sensed even without full context

Moral Gravity is not intuition, it is structural perception.

Why Moral Gravity Matters

Moral Gravity allows humans to:

• detect structural disproportion early

• sense rising drift

• feel the difference between truth and narrative

• interpret political vs. structural signals

• recognize when governance has lost legitimacy

• experience the relief of restored coherence

• avoid environments where meaning collapses

Moral Gravity protects individuals from being trapped in systems that are losing proportion.

System-Level Implications

Strong Moral Gravity:

• increases meaning stability

• accelerates correction

• protects against political drift

• strengthens alignment

• improves decision quality

• supports coherent governance

Suppressed or ignored Moral Gravity:

• enables structural failure

• increases political manipulation

• accelerates meaning collapse

• traps teams in incoherent systems

• leads to burnout and confusion

Moral Gravity is a warning signal, not a mood.

Applications

Moral Gravity is used to interpret:

• early warning signs of organizational drift

• breakdowns in trust

• leadership misalignment

• cultural incoherence

• psychological safety failure

• AI-driven meaning distortion

• legitimacy collapse

• human reactions to strategy or governance changes