The Rule That Guides Us All

I was looking online for a thread that discusses what is often referred to in this country as The Golden Rule, and how that teaching of fundamental respect for human beings is common to most social systems. I found this Wikipedia entry: Ethic of Reciprocity. My ethics professor in college summed up The Golden Rule as "Treat people as ends in and of themselves, never as mere means." I think that turn of phrase sums up "do unto others" quite elegantly.

I was looking for this in order to be able to express a fundamental principle that is generally missing in marketing today. I always knew that the Golden Rule shows up pretty much everywhere in philosophy, sociology and religion, but I've not looked at how it is expressed in each of those contexts in quite a long time. The Wikipedia entry I linked to does a nice job of that.