RE: Can Darwinism account for morality?
June 19, 2015 at 3:34 pm
(This post was last modified: June 19, 2015 at 3:47 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
The old "cheaters never prosper" is, of course, false. We don't like what they do because they -do- win and they -do- prosper......by refusing to play by our rules in a situation in which we are incapable of enforcing them. So, of course someone who doesn;t limit himself, as we might limit ourselves...is going to have a wider range of options available, and of course competition between these two different types of people isn't going to be fair...but even for the rich who have "cheated" it;s generally not something they commit their lives to. They exploited a situation...they may, immediately thereafter, go back to toeing the line......and most do. After all, if you've gotten away with something, you don't want to bring any attention to that fact surrounded by a mob of angry losers and runners-up.
Its not as if the exploitative urge and ability isn't useful, even in otherwise social, empathetic creatures. Any of us might shift back between these two "modes" -if there's even, truly, any separation between them...at pretty much any time. It's sort of binary to wonder why, if we evolved to be good (good as in showing empathy, following the rules, etc etc etc)....do we do bad, or VV. Neither urge was "developed" with the express purpose of furthering our species...but both further the reproductive aims of the individual.....which -does- benefit our species.
So, I guess the short answer is that morality -didn't- develop in our species to further it, that;s not -why- it developed....it's just one of the effects that it had once we'd acquired it. It may be that the situation could change, and it becomes detrimental, but in the here and now, to say that it's a "free for all" ignores the whole point of our moralizing in the first place. It's -not- a free for all...not even "darwinistiacally", if it were.......we wouldn't be bitching about our limitations, self imposed and otherwise...and the people who break them, nor would we see patterns of behavior be consistently successful over long spans of time in many different populations. We are, to at least some extent, morally constrained by who and what we are.
Its not as if the exploitative urge and ability isn't useful, even in otherwise social, empathetic creatures. Any of us might shift back between these two "modes" -if there's even, truly, any separation between them...at pretty much any time. It's sort of binary to wonder why, if we evolved to be good (good as in showing empathy, following the rules, etc etc etc)....do we do bad, or VV. Neither urge was "developed" with the express purpose of furthering our species...but both further the reproductive aims of the individual.....which -does- benefit our species.
So, I guess the short answer is that morality -didn't- develop in our species to further it, that;s not -why- it developed....it's just one of the effects that it had once we'd acquired it. It may be that the situation could change, and it becomes detrimental, but in the here and now, to say that it's a "free for all" ignores the whole point of our moralizing in the first place. It's -not- a free for all...not even "darwinistiacally", if it were.......we wouldn't be bitching about our limitations, self imposed and otherwise...and the people who break them, nor would we see patterns of behavior be consistently successful over long spans of time in many different populations. We are, to at least some extent, morally constrained by who and what we are.
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