I believe morality is rooted in empathy. Dog-eat-dog is egocentric - the exact opposite of empathy. Actions that are driven by empathy make us feel good - they are also helpful to the proliferation of our species.I both agree and do not agree with Rosenberg's view on morality and evolution. I feel like it is possible for our core morality to stem from natural selection and adaptive drives. However, if that were really the case, why isn't the dog-eat-dog morality one of our morals? — Play-doh
why isn't the dog-eat-dog morality one of our morals? — Play-doh
If evolution got us to a point where we think that killing should be frowned upon, there shouldn't be a situational deviation; it should be all good or all bad no matter the situation — Play-doh
I both agree and do not agree with Rosenberg's view on morality and evolution — Play-doh
I have no beef with entomology or evolution, but I refuse to admit that they teach me much about ethics. Consider the fact that human action ranges to the extremes. People can perform extraordinary acts of altruism, including kindness toward other species — or they can utterly fail to be altruistic, even toward their own children. So whatever tendencies we may have inherited leave ample room for variation; our choices will determine which end of the spectrum we approach. This is where ethical discourse comes in — not in explaining how we’re “built,” but in deliberating on our own future acts. Should I cheat on this test? Should I give this stranger a ride? Knowing how my selfish and altruistic feelings evolved doesn’t help me decide at all. Most, though not all, moral codes advise me to cultivate altruism. But since the human race has evolved to be capable of a wide range of both selfish and altruistic behavior, there is no reason to say that altruism is superior to selfishness in any biological sense.
Where i would disagree with this explanation is that cities and countries are very recent phenomenon (on an evolutionary timescale). While we are constantly evolving, an insufficient length of time has passed, during which to evolve in respect to these new sociological inventions. For the sake of enhancing your argument, when one tribe (or family) encountered another tribe (or family), their were many risks, diesease transmition or insufficient food/water for both tribes to coexist. Thus the tribe that could kill the other had an evolutionary advantage. When more tribes start killing each other it adds an additional risk factor when tribes encounter each other. The ability to kill outside of your tribe/family became a necessity for surrvival, while within the tribe/family there remain all the evolutionary factors for why not to kill. In essence within groups killing reduces surrvival, but between multiple groups killing increases chance of survival.Humans have developed a myriad of instincts through evolution that promote social bonds on various levels, such as family, city, and country. — Brillig
Perhaps pointing to "empathy" is too specific, but I think it's clear that we have an innate sense of right and wrong - certainly it entails a non-verbal, mental capacity. Certain things SEEM wrong, like if we see a person being beaten or killed - this touches our emotions. So empathy doesn't capture this exactly, but it's close.My question to you would be, how did empathy rise up as the dominant moral compass for humankind? — Abecedarian
Morality is definitely based on evolution. — LD Saunders
Even Peter Singer accepts a great deal of evolutionary biology as an explanation for human morality. — LD Saunders
Every progress in evolution is dearly paid for; miscarried attempts, merciless struggle everywhere. The more detailed our knowledge of nature becomes, the more we see, together with the element of generosity and progression which radiates from being, the law of degradation, the powers of destruction and death, the implacable voracity which are also inherent in the world of matter. And when it comes to man, surrounded and invaded as he is by a host of warping forces, psychology and anthropology are but an account of the fact that, while being essentially superior to all of them, he is the most unfortunate of animals. So it is that when its vision of the world is enlightened by science, the intellect which religious faith perfects realises still better that nature, however good in its own order, does not suffice, and that if the deepest hopes of mankind are not destined to turn to mockery, it is because a God-given energy better than nature is at work in us. — Jacques Maritain
Evolution is not concerned with whether any specific individual has children. — LD Saunders
that our moral senses are part of our human nature. We have a “core morality” programmed into us by evolution to enable us to interact socially and so exploit a cooperative evolutionary niche. Of course evolution doesn’t care about the morality itself, it only cares (metaphorically “cares” of course) about what leads to us leaving more descendants. It follows that (page 286): “there are no facts of the matter about what is morally right or wrong, good or bad”. But it also follows, since humans are highly similar genetically, that “most people naturally buy into the same core morality that makes us tolerably nice to each other” 1.
Is there no "fact of the matter" regarding the pain experience (the quale)? I think there is: pain is a state of consciousness. IMO, the sense of right/wrong is something like that - and this is why I relate it to empathy: we actually feel something when we see, or even ponder, some basic wrongs.“there are no facts of the matter about what is morally right or wrong, good or bad
In every system of morality, which I have hitherto met with, I have always remark'd, that the author proceeds for some time in the ordinary way of reasoning, and establishes the being of a God or makes observations concerning human affairs; when of a sudden I am surpriz'd to find, that instead of the usual copulations of propositions, is, and is not, I meet with no proposition that is not connected with an ought, or an ought not. This change is imperceptible; but is, however, of the last [i.e. highest] consequence.
However, if that were really the case, why isn't the dog-eat-dog morality one of our morals? — Play-doh
However, if that were really the case, why isn't the dog-eat-dog morality one of our morals? If we are so determined to survive and overpower the strong, why is murder or even just hurting someone not one of our core morals? Why do we feel it is wrong to mess with weaker people? — Play-doh
The genius of humans is their ability to work together. — macrosoft
It's not even some unique genius of humans. — SophistiCat
3. Morality is not universal. — gnat
I both agree and do not agree with Rosenberg's view on morality and evolution. I feel like it is possible for our core morality to stem from natural selection and adaptive drives. However, if that were really the case, why isn't the dog-eat-dog morality one of our morals? — Play-doh
Fittest in that sense, was anything but dog eat dog. Something Nietzsche got wrong to catastrophic effect. — karl stone
I feel like it is possible for our core morality to stem from natural selection and adaptive drives. However, if that were really the case, why isn't the dog-eat-dog morality one of our morals? If we are so determined to survive and overpower the strong, why is murder or even just hurting someone not one of our core morals? — Play-doh
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