(May 29, 2022 at 9:34 pm)Paleophyte Wrote: [...]
And of course there are numerous stable solutions for many problems. Is it any wonder that we're a crazed little species? One might predict that this state of affairs would give rise to a whole slew of different cultures with core commonalities and near infinite variety around the edges, which is exactly what we see.
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Yes, this seems like the most likely explanation to me.
Perhaps it's a bit like language acquisition. Each baby is born with no language, but with a capacity to pick one up quite quickly. Which one he acquires depends on who he's with. Then if he doesn't have one by a certain age we'd say there's some deficit involved.
Likewise with morality. We are evolved to pick up some set of standards that align us with our immediate society. But what those standards are depend entirely on when and where we're born.
Some societies emphasize cooperation and empathy, while others prefer competition. Both are natural, and both came about, indirectly, through evolution.
That's my guess.
