Meaning of Right and Wrong... Finally Answered!

[pacian]

As theVOID said, many of our most basic moral intuitions have nothing to do with survival. How does giving money to a charity for starving Africans increase our chances of survival? It doesn't. Africans can't return the favour. Survivability may be, and probably is, how our morality came to be, but it has nothing to do with our ethical views in most situations.

Its like this, think your the government and you want your society to prosper. You want most of your people to be educated and help society grow, the more people you have, the more likely one of these people will be a doctor, a scientist, or some other occupation that benefits society immensely. Not all people will have the patience to study or the IQ, but the more people there is the more your odds are of having the people with these intellectual traits. Now, in Africa he might now be able to realize his whole potential, as to say if he was in America, where basic human essentials are less of an issue, but as a human being he has potential. Like all human beings, plus who knows his DNA might have the genes to fight the next disease or whatever, its more likely that's true the more people on earth there is. It is true, evolution prefers a greater genetic cocktail, to play with, to help life survive and adapt to situations. Also like tavarish earlier said, it increases are bonds with other people, and as it has been proven having more friends is a trait that helps you survive. Plus all the stuff he or she said Plus add what padriac wrote," The concepts of compassion and charity have definite survival values.They mean we may survive when we have no food are,sick,injured or old."

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Why the hell should survivability matter at all for morality?

Death is painless, life isn't. Morality is about reducing suffering and increasing pleasure as far as I'm concerned. The priority being on reducing suffering. It's only worth surviving if life is overall pleasurable for ourselves or others.

Human beings are essentially self interested animals. Many if not all moral rules are related to individual and/or group survival as they are reciprocal.

EG in our society:

Not killing and eating each other
Not raping
Not stealing others' property and food
Incest taboos
Not drunk driving
The concepts of compassion and charity have definite survival values.They mean we may survive when we have no food are,sick,injured or old.

If all life was absolutely torturous overall, surviving wouldn't be morally important.

Non sequitor.The purpose of life is itself. The most powerful drives we have are to survive and reproduce. Whether life is pleasant or horrible is irrelevant. Until only about two hundred years ago,life for most humans on the planet was " nasty,brutish and short"*. Still is for many millions.



* Thomas Hobbes; 'Leviathan'

Awesome post padraic